The Last Scorpion of Wutai
by That guy with the pipe
Summary: Mysterious murders began to terrorize the people of Edge, all the deaths former members of the Shinra company or are in the WRO. A mysterious man from Yuffie's past shows up and Vincent suspects he may very well be the killer. But the murders are only the beginning as a much larger conspiracy shows its face and enemies of old return. VincentxYuffie ElenaxOC BarretxCissnei post DoC.
1. Prologue: The Lost Children of Wutai

_The tiny shuriken flashed through the air finding its mark in the tree stump piercing the paper target nailed to the tree. The shuriken was only a few centimeters off from the bull's-eye. Kayaku frowned and threw another managing to hit the target but once again finding the weapon slightly off target._

_"That one was close!" a voice sounded from the trees above, Kayaku looked up to see a young short haired girl sitting in the branches above skinny legs dangling. "Keep practicing like that and you'll be as good as me someday." She smirked jumping down from the trees next to him. "We'll maybe not quite as good as me, Yuffie Kisaragi!"_

_Kayaku rolled his eyes, he doubted the small six year old girl could do any better than him, even if she was Godo's daughter._

_Kayaku handed the girl a single shuriken, "Prove it," he said._

_"What'll you give me if I can hit the bull's-eye?" She said a toothy grin spreading across her face._

_"I'm not betting anything," Kayaku said crossing his arms._

_"But then it's no fun!" She whined, "If I win you give me ten Gil how about it?" she said._

_"And if I win?" Kayaku asked running his fingers through his copper hair._

_"You won't win," the girl said smugly, "But just to be fair we'll say that I'll give you ten gil if I miss as unlikely and impossible as that is."_

_"Fine," Kayaku agreed, stepping aside and letting the little kunoichi take aim._

_The little girl tossed the tiny weapon and it spun through the air towards the target finding the bull's-eye with perfect accuracy._

_"Got it!" the girl yelled jumping up and down in victory, "You owe me ten gil pay up!" _

_Sighing the copper haired teenager fished the coins out of his pocket and handed them over to the little girl, what did the daughter of Godo's need with ten gil anyways her farther was loaded and had more than enough money to spoil her rotten, but here she was dirty and dusty with twigs and tree sap in her hair and dirt caked onto her face._

_"Why aren't you training with the other kunoichis?" Kayaku asked walking over and retrieving his shuriken and kunai knives from the target stumps. _

_"Those classes are boring!" she whined picking up a stick and drawing in the dirk, "Today we're learning how to make our own dresses all month we're learning about the different fashions of the world. What kind of ninja wears dresses anyways? Their long and hard to move it and are so uncomfortable. We should be learning to throw shuriken and steal things like you've been practicing."_

_"A Shinobi should master many skills," Kayaku said, "even things and mundane as fashion."_

_"But I can throw shuriken better than anyone," Yuffie said, "And have you talked to those other girls? Most of them don't even know how to hold shuriken and the teachers say I'm too young to handle sharp things. And everyone treats me different just because my old man's the leader of Wutai."_

_Keyaku walked back and sheathed the weapons putting them back on his belt and walking back to his position, from a holster on his belt he produced a small snub-nosed revolver. Pulling the hammer back he took aim at the stumps._

_"What are you doing with a gun?" Yuffie said, "That's not a ninja weapon."_

_"Times are changing," Kayaku said, "plenty of people are using guns, they're more accurate than kunai or shuriken and do more damage, though they're loud and bulky compared to shuriken."_

_Kayaku fired the gun emptying all six shots into the trunks._

_Yuffie watch as the shots impacted with almost flawless accuracy, "Well you're better with that gun than you are with your shuriken."_

_Kayaku holstered the weapon and cleaned up to go home, "It's getting late you should go home."_

_Yuffie nodded, "What's your name?"_

_"I'm Kayaku Sasori," he said simply, "youngest member of the Sasori clan."_

_"Well Kayaku if you want I'll allow you to train with me," she said stretching, "If you're lucky some of my natural ninja talent might rub off on you."_

_"Thanks but I'll have to decline," he said walking towards the city._

_"What! Why?!" the young girl exclaimed._

_"I'm leaving Wutai in the morning," he explained, "And I don't know when I'll be returning."_

* * *

_Kayaku sat on his knees face facing the wooden floor his weapons laid out in front of him, his three brothers sat beside him from him the youngest to _

_his oldest, the proud loyal children of Clan Sasori laid out for Lord Godo like an armory._

_"Feel no need to advert your eyes," Godo said to them, Kayaku looked up to face his lord. "Warriors such as you have the right to look me in the face."_

_His brothers all faced him intent and determined. "What is your mission?" Godo asked them._

_"To infiltrate Shinra and lift ourselves to the highest ranks of their military," They all said in unison expecting the questions and armed with the programed responses. "To destroy it from within should they seek war with the Shinobi of Wutai, to be the poisoned tail of the scorpion and protect our home and all who live within it. We will earn the trust of the enemy and do their bidding we will act as a blade for Shinra and turn when ordered severing the vitals of organs when the time is right. We will perform ever duty, every task and every kill, we will not shy in the face of darkness, we live in darkness and will dwell in it for as long as necessary to ensure the safety of our nation."_

_Godo looked pleased, "You have accepted a great sacrifice," Godo said, "A sacrifice we will be sure to honor I future generations. Few words can honor what you have each agreed to do, Kayaku, Izumi, Harima, Iko, I will not soon forget your faces as you face years of hardship, but I can assure you your mission will not be in vein, tonight gather with your family, enjoy our city and say farewell to your friends for when you leave, for in the morning you will have nothing but each other go with my blessing and the hopes and dreams of the people of Wutai."_

_Godo left and one by one they left the room exiting his house to enjoy their last moments in Wutai._

_"Hey?" a young voice said behind him, Kayaku turned to see the brown eyed tomboy looking at him._

_"Yuffie?" he said facing her._

_"I heard everything," she said smiling, "So you're really leaving to protect Wutai from Shinra?"_

_Kayaku's face hardened, "That's top secret, how did you?"_

_"I was in the rafters above, and besides I can keep a secret I'm a ninja after all." She said winking, "So is it true are you leaving? Is there going to be a war?"_

_"I'm leaving," Kayaku said, "If there will be a war… I can't say."_

_"Well good luck," Yuffie said, "I'll be rooting for you and take this you might need it."_

_Kayaku accepted the item opening his hand to see a small star shaped shuriken._

_"Don't forget to practice," she said._

* * *

**Twelve years later.**

Kayaku poured the sake into the porcelain cup and downed it feeling the rice wine begin to take effect, after the mako infusion it was incredibly difficult for him to get drunk. Lucky for him he had managed to find and abandoned bar with an untouched stock of booze. The broken tables and bullet riddled walls seemed like an appropriate sight for the end. Everything had been pretty grim until this point, why should the end be any different. His revolver was sitting on the bar in front of him loaded and ready to take his life. Twelve years, he had devoted his last twelve years to his mission, it had cost him dearly, it had taken his brothers lives it had shredded his soul into pieces. Joining SOLDIER, becoming augmented and twisted into a weapon of the company fighting their battles and losing his brothers, fighting against his own people to gain the trust of the company, joining the Turks and preforming the disgusting dirty work of the company, the killing, threats, and assassinations, interrogations and experiments, all for Wutai. All for his country to lose, for Godo to surrender to Shinra. What a joke, his life was a joke, the lives of his brothers were a joke all wasted all dead waiting for orders that never came.

Kayaku looked at the gun on the bar loaded with a single round, one round would be enough to blow his brains out, just one bullet in the mouth, what a punchline to his joke of a life.

He reached into the breast pocket of his suit, even now he still wore his Turk blue suit the badge ripped off and in the corner of the room forgotten and unwanted, it wouldn't be long until Shinra gave found him, he wouldn't survive very long with the company out to get him, after the surrender someone had talked, his secret was dead and soon so would he. He pulled a packet of cigarettes from his suit and drew forth his last smoke in the pack. He pulled out his lighter and lit it, that's when he heard the footsteps behind him, the sound of heavy footfall told him it was none other than simple Shinra soldiers.

They laughed among one another as they walked into the abandoned bar, "How about a drink men," one of them said.

"Hey someone's here," another said noticing Kayaku.

"Drowning your sorrows eh?" the first one asked clapping his shoulder, "Hey no need to be depressed, you may have lost the war but what did you expect? Shinra controls the whole world, to be honest no one expected you to last as long as you did. When the war started everyone said I'd be over in a month so at least you lost with grace."

"Just shut up!" Kayaku hissed, "You make it sound like a damn chocobo race!" he growled, "People died, men, women, and children. Whole families slaughtered and cultural heritages ruined all so your damn company could build a filthy reactor here."

"What was that?" a third voice said, "Did we say you could talk bad about Shinra?"

Kayaku tried to stand only to get a rifle butt to the side of his head, he'd drunken more than he thought, he crashed to the ground looking up at the three Shinra footmen armed, and perhaps this was better, a former Turk and ninja killed my some regular Shinra goons just another number to the body count.

"What's this?" one of the men asked picking the lighter and gun off the bar, "This lighter has the Shinra logo on it. Where'd you get it? Who'd you kill for it?"

Kayaku didn't say a thing, he just waited for things to pan out.

The officer took his revolver, "nice gun, I think I'll take it." The officer pointed the gun at him.

Kayaku laughed, maybe it was the sake but he found this more than hilarious, killed with his own gun. The gun he had used to kill so many innocents enemies of Shinra even his kin and fellow members of Wutai his cover in the company was absolute, it was just that he'd face such irony.

The officer pulled back the trigger and Kayaku stared down the barrel, hoping the shot would be clean.

A flash of steel and the officer screamed as a shuriken slashed his forearm, the officer dropped the gun as more shuriken pierced his body. The other soldiers turned to the doorway aiming their weapons they opened fire ridding the doorway with bullets the sound of small feet running could be heard outside. The men tried following the sound shooting through the wall, a shadow passed by a window and the next window he spotted a face. Round, pale, young, brown eyes, her face.

Kayaku grabbed his gun as fast as he could pressing it against the back of one of the gunners heads he pulled the trigger and splattered his brains all over his friend.

The man turned blood and brains covering his face rifle pointed at him when one of the windows burst open. A massive shuriken spun through the air striking the soldier in the back killing him.

Kayaku looked at the empty gun his hands. "Hey," A voice said, "Are you alright?"

Kayaku saw her enter into the bar, he avoided her eyes not wanting her to sense his shame.

"Thanks for the help," she said, "not that I needed it."

Kayaku stayed silent.

"What were you doing in a place like this? With those Shinra goons' people like you could get hurt," she explained retrieving her shuriken, "or did you not care if anything bad happened."

Kayaku turned away from her. "I don't know who you are sir, but take this to heart. As long as a single white rose blooms in Wutai we'll have a future and that's my job to survive this winter until our spring comes again."

Kayaku breathed, she hadn't recognized him, he was glad, twelve years had changed him and he was grateful she didn't know who he was, if he was lucky she'd have forgotten him completely.

"Well spread the word, the white rose of Wutai will survive the winter and when the spring comes we'll bloom better than ever."

Kayaku turned only to find her gone, "Survive the winter you say?" Kayaku looked at the gun in his hand feeling its weight, it seemed like such a sinful weapon, but then again every weapon had shed blood of the innocent, all except one.

Kayaku reached his hand into his pocket feeling the small metal shuriken he'd been given by her so many years go. Kayaku closed his hand around the sharp edges.

"We'll bloom in spring you say? I hope to see that one day."


	2. Act I: Harima

**Four years later**

Tifa gripped her umbrella tightly holding it up to keep the falling rain off of her and Denzel. She squeezed the young man's hand protectively. No child his age should have to witness such gruesome scenery but here it was before them, the kid was tough having witnessed much but still he adverted his eyes away from the corpses.

They had been running errands today, simple errands around the city before the bar opened. They hadn't expected to find four bodies bleeding in the gutter in the morning. The Edge police quarantined the area off setting up their yellow tape and collecting as much evidence as they could before the rain washed it all away. Tifa figured whatever real evidence was here was already gone and washed away, these bodies looked a couple of hours old already and they didn't look like sloppy kills either.

Four bodies, the first had a stab wound straight through the heart small and precise, the second one had been shot, three shots into his center mass hitting the sternum in a tight grouping a single round had been put through the man's head for good measure cracking his skull open. His brain flopped out of the cavity dripping onto the pavement. The third was missing his head, no other wounds showed on his body just a single cut across the neck that freed his head from his shoulders. Tifa knew it took more than a good blade to cut off a person's head, it took a fair amount of strength as well and this was clearly a single cut.

The fourth, was missing both his arms. Various other body parts were strewn across the alley, fingers, hands and various sections of his arms. Left to bleed to death she guessed, but probably after being pumped for information. It wasn't a pleasant sight and she hoped to leave as soon as possible, but the police kept asking her questions.

"Now can you please tell me again what you saw?" The officer asked jotting down notes on a notepad.

Tifa sighed, "I told you," she said, "We were walking to the market to pick up fresh ingredients when we noticed the blood filling the gutters, when it looked to see where it was coming from I saw the bodies in the alley. After that I called the police and waited for you to arrive."

"Did you see anyone leaving the scene or tampering with the evidence?" The officer asked.

"Yeah," Tifa said, "I saw the rain washing the blood away, can I go now?"

Closing his notepad the police nodded, "We may call you in for further questioning but you may go about your day."

Tifa nodded and began on her way again hoping to gather her groceries and return to the warming comfort of the 7th Heaven.

"How many people have died?" Denzel asked squeezing her hand, the boy was certainly growing his grip was getting stronger.

Tifa thought a moment, four dead today, that'd make sixteen this month. The story of murder wasn't unheard of in the city of Edge. The last month especially was grisly of the sixteen dead, many were members of the WRO or known criminals.

"Sixteen," Tifa answered, it didn't feel right speaking to a child about such things but Denzel had seen much at his age and treating him like a naive little kid wouldn't be right.

"Are you and Cloud going to find him?" he asked.

Tifa shook her head, "The police are working as best they can, and it's not our job to fix every problem that appears Denzel, unless Reeves asks us for help this is a job for the police and the WRO."

"Has Reeves asked you to help with the investigation?"

Again Tifa shook her head, "We haven't heard from Reeves he's been busy with his reelection as president of the WRO."

"So you're just going to let this killer run rampant through the city?" Denzel said a bitter edge to his tone.

"I never said that," She said, "if this killer whoever he is crosses our path he'll be sorry."

* * *

"Four bodies!" Barret exclaimed, "Are you sure you didn't see anyone leaving that alley?"

Tifa sighed polishing off the bar, Yuffie sat in the corner with her arms folded. "I'm sure, besides those bodies didn't look very too fresh anyways."

"If you ask me those cops aren't doing their job very well," Yuffie said staring at the ceiling tossing a small shuriken into the air hitting the ceiling embedding itself into the rafters, "I mean it's been one month and they can't catch one killer."

"Well that's the thing," Tifa said, "The police don't even think it's a single killer, the methods are very diverse. The victims have been shot, stabbed, and blown up everything from snipers to car bombs have been used, the only reason they suspect their related is because most of them are WRO."

"It wouldn't be difficult for a single person to do all of that," Yuffie said throwing another shuriken into the ceiling bored, "He or she would just need to have a diverse skill set."

"Maybe but it's not our job to enforce the law around here," Tifa said, "And I thought I told you to stop throwing shuriken in my bar."

Yuffie groaned, "But I'm bored," she moaned, "I thought things would be more interesting here in the big city but everyone here is a bunch of squares."

"Unlike you we all have jobs to do and lives to live," Barret grumbled watching Marline play with Denzel in the corner, "not everyone can be a drifter like you with a loaded father to pay your way."

"Well that's a shame," Yuffie said bored, "More people should get themselves opulent dads like me," Yuffie looked at the shuriken stuck in the ceiling, "Sure is more fun than tending to an empty bar."

The door to the 7th Heaven opened up to the stormy city outside, a single man stepped through the door dripping rain.

A tall man stood dressed in a charcoal gray suit with a similar colored hat stood upon his head and a dark grey raincoat was draped over his shoulders, a crimson red tie shone out from the dark grey suit copper hair hung down to his shoulder blades tied into a single neat braid.

"Can I help you?" Tifa asked looking at the stranger as he walked closer dripping rainwater everywhere.

The man removed his sunglasses revealing his glowing silver eyes mako infused just like Cloud and so many others Tifa had met over the years.

"Yes," the man said tucking the sunglasses into his coat pocket, "My name is Harima," he said formally introducing himself, "I'd like to rent a room," he announced, "And I'd like something delivered as well."

* * *

Kayaku locked the door behind him looking around the small little room offered to him. The single room of the 7th Heaven bar was hardly large but it was enough to accommodate him, not that he'd be using the room very much. If it wasn't for his orders he wouldn't have come here, but he needed to watch the place for the time being and make sure no one tried anything nefarious with the former members of AVALANCH. For now he needed to stay here and keep an eye on things while he conducted his business.

Luckily for him the girl Tifa had accepted his alias of Harima. He couldn't use his real name here, it seemed like ages since he'd used his real name. After defecting from Shinra he could hardly use the name of a wanted man even if he was a secret of the company itself. Turks left the company in a body bag, luckily he'd managed to avoid that fate. Since the company fell he thought he might be able to use his name once more, but the more things change the more they stay the same and in his current occupation real names were dangerous.

Kayaku smiled to himself setting his suitcase onto the bed opening it to inspect the contents seeing his folded clothes, he pulled the clothes out and began packing them neatly into drawers. It seemed that once again Yuffie hadn't recognized him. Kayaku didn't expect her to remember him, he had prayed she wouldn't, he didn't expect her to remember the young teenager leaving to destroy Shinra, but he hoped she had forgotten the face of the drunken man defeated and ready to blow his own brains out with his revolver, too wasted and forlorn to defend himself from the common Shinra rabble that had interrupted his planned suicide. He closed his eyes praying she would never remember that disgrace.

A light knock sounded from the door Kayaku turned to face it. "Yes?" he asked sliding a thin dagger from the lining of his suitcase.

"Just making sure you're settling in alright," Tifa said from behind the door, "And I'd like to talk to you about the delivery you mentioned."

"I'm fine," He said slipping the knife back into the lining of the suitcase, "I'll be down once I've changed into dryer clothes."

"Alright," she said leaving him alone.

Shedding his raincoat Kayaku removed his suit jacket and began unbuttoning his vest revealing his two shoulder holsters, sighing he removed the weapons packing them away into the hidden bottom of his suitcase. He changed into a new white shirt and charcoal vest and slacks putting on his spare charcoal suit jacket. He kept the holsters on under his vest and slid the gun in, he also made sure his tanto was secured to the small of his back

He walked down to the bar where Tifa was waiting with Barret. The large burley man sat down leaning on the bar staring into his half empty glass of beer. Kayaku avoided his eyes, hopefully the former leader of AVALANCH wouldn't recognize him either.

"Can I get you anything?" Tifa asked cleaning a glass with a rag.

"I'll have a glass of water," he said simply, Tifa nodded and turned to pour the man a glass.

"Water huh?" Barret chuckled looking back at the trail of water Kayaku had brought in with him, "I'd have thought you'd have gotten enough of that stuff outside."

The door opened from behind him and he turned to see Yuffie coming back inside. "Is that you're silver sports car outside?" she asked sitting down in a chair slightly damp from the rain outside.

Kayaku nodded, "Yes it is," he said sipping his water.

"So if you drove how'd you get so wet?" she asked spinning a tiny shuriken on the table.

"I was doing business around town before coming here," He explained looking at her from the mirror behind the bar.

"So about this delivery," Tifa said steering the conversation towards business, "When do you need it delivered?"

Kayaku held a card out, "I have the address and the package number on this card, I'd like it shipped whenever possible."

Tifa smiled politely as she took the card, "Well my husband handles the deliveries," she explained, "He should be back in a few day's I'm sure we can arrange something once he's back and rested."

"I'd this to be shipped as soon as possible," he explained pulling his checkbook out of his jacket pocket, "I'll pay you well for his services," He said writing the check and handing it to her.

"One hundred thousand," Tifa exclaimed counting the zeroes.

"Up front," Kayaku said finishing his water, "like it said it's important."

"What are you wanting shipped?" Tifa asked as he stood up and headed for the door slipping on his raincoat.

"That's private," he said opening the door and walking back outside to the rain pulling his car keys out of his pocket.

* * *

Kayaku pulled the car into the alleyway away from the prying eyes of the public, he opened the door his foot splashed a puddle as he stepped out. He checked the alley making sure no one saw him here behind the warehouse. Moving to the back of the car he opened the trunk and looked in at the bloodied man tied up in the back.

"Time for a chat," Kayaku said grabbing the man and hauling him from the trunk.


	3. Being a Monster

Kayaku clicked the lighter releasing the yellow flame and lighting his cigarette. "Alright," he said to his fearful guest bound to a metal chair in the middle of the room under a single hanging lamp, "Let's get some answers, where'd you get the weapons from?"

The haggard man looked up at him, "You kill my friend's drug me and stuff me in the back of your can thinking I'll just answer your questions?"

Kayaku fished in his pocket pulling out a silver butterfly knife flipping the blade over and over in his hand elegantly, the balisong as it was properly called flashed in the dark reflecting the red cherry of Kayaku's cigarette making metallic clicks and it played with it.

"I don't expect you to answer anything," he said swiping the blade across the man's face cutting his cheek open, "At least not without a little work on my end, but if you'd like to make my job easier I can always skip the torture and begin taking notes right now, not that I mind ripping an eye out and using the your gory empty socket as an ashtray."

The thug chuckled, "You think a little cut on my cheek is going to scare me?" he sneered, "I'm former Shinra infantry bub and I saw more than my share of assholes like you in my time, and most of you limp dicked fuckers only talk tough and can't deliver on your pathetic threats."

Kayaku raised an eyebrow at the man, flicking the knife open again he released the flame of his lighter heating the blade up.

"Well I certainly don't want you to think of my threats as petty," Kayaku said closing the lighter, "So I'll begin making due," Kayaku grabbed the restrained man by his hair pulling his head back and stabbing the hot blade into the man's eye socket. Blood gushed from the man's eye and he screamed in terror as Kayaku popped the eye out. His eye hung by a thin red vein, closing the knife Kayaku grabbed the eye and yanked it ripping it free from the vein, he threw the eye on the ground and crushed it with his foot. Grabbing his cigarette Kayaku flicked the hot ash into his open socket and shoved the rest of his cigarette into the wound pressing the red hot cherry into his skull.

The man screamed in horror crying from his one remaining eye blood dripped from the corner of his mouth, he must have bitten his tongue in his agony.

Kumo let the man's hair go, "Keep your head back," he ordered, "you don't want to spill blood or ash everywhere," he said pulling out his pack of cigarettes popping out another smoke and grabbing it with his lips and clicking his lighter to life once again to light it.

"Now do you think I make empty threats?" He asked, "And don't think I'm worried about killing you," he said patting a silver flask on his belt, "I have plenty of potions and Materia to keep you alive, but just barely, believe me everything I take from you will be a permanent loss, and they will be things that you will miss."

"Go to hell you fucking Wutai piece of shit," He screamed spraying blood and spittle everywhere.

"Wrong answer," Kayaku said reaching into his vest and pulling out his revolver and clicking the hammer back. The weapon was a double action so there was no need to pull the hammer back but the audible click certainly had a threatening effect.

Kayaku pressed the muzzle against the man's knee cap, "I don't need to tell you what I'll do next, now tell me, where'd you get the weapons Jackson." He asked calmly using the man's name, "I know you stole them from a Shinra lab, but I want to know where. How'd you find the labs? How'd you even get into them?"

"Fuck you!" Jackson cursed.

Kayaku pulled the trigger blowing the man's kneecap apart. Blood, bone and cartilage flew everywhere. Jackson screamed, "You motherfucker!"

"Answer me or it's your other knee cap," Kayaku threatened his cigarette glowing in the dark.

"I don't know," Jackson screamed, "I just let my team into the lab," he explained desperately, as Kayaku unscrewed the cap on the flask pouring a few drops of potion onto the wound closing it enough to stop the bleeding but keep the pain.

"My boss William was the one who gave us the instructions," he explained, "He gave us everything we needed to raid the lab, blue prints, and key codes for the vaults. I don't know where he got them but whoever hired him probably had the information on the labs. Please we're just mercenaries."

"Mercenaries recovering and selling illegal weapons among other things." Kayaku said pulling out Jackson's cellphone and searching through the numbers.

"If… If you're talking about what was in that container I had no idea-," Jackson stammered only to be cut off as Kayaku pistol whipped him across the face, Jackson spat out a tooth along with a thick wad of blood and flam.

"But that wasn't going to stop you from selling it and making a profit was it?" Kayaku spat accusingly finding the name William on his phone.

"Is this your boss?" Kayaku said holding the phone over his prisoner's one remaining eye.

Jackson nodded feebly.

"Talk to him," Kayaku ordered pressing the muzzle of his revolver against his good knee, "Have him come here, I'd like to see him."

"Pl-please," the man cried desperately, "I'm not a bad guy I just needed the money, if William finds out what happened here he'll kill me."

Kayaku pulled the hammer back threateningly to emphasize his point, "Tell him to come here," Kayaku ordered pressing the barrel in harder to his knee, "now!"

"Listen if it's the rest of the weapons and tech you want I'm sure William would be willing to sell them to you at a reasonable price." Jackson begged.

Kayaku pulled the trigger blasting away his kneecap, one the man's screams had died down Kayaku pressed the phone too his ear hitting the dial button. "Either convince him to come here or I'll kill you, and I guarantee it will be anything but quick and painless."

Jackson collected himself breathing deeply, "Hello," he said managing to sound very calm and collected, Kayaku had to admit the man had exceptional acting skills especially with both his kneecaps blasted to pieces and his eye-socket acting as an ashtray.

"William," he said, "I need to speak to you," he said managing to remain calm despite Kayaku pressing the revolver against his forehead, the hot barrel had to have burned. "I'm in the warehouse district, one of the old abandoned ones, number thirty eight. I need to speak to you privately."

Kayaku pulled the phone back ending the call, "Good," he said pocketing the phone, it could be useful later, doubtless it had information, "How long do you estimate until he arrives?" He asked.

"An hour at least," Jackson said.

"Good," Kayaku said, "Because there's plenty of questions I'd like to ask you before they arrive."

"N-no," He pleaded, "Please, I've already done enough."

"Enough," Kayaku said shoving his cigarette into his eye socket, "You've barely started my friend, don't make this any more difficult than it has to be I warn you I can be a bit of a chain smoker when I'm working."

Jackson screamed as the cigarette burned. It was going to be a long night.

* * *

The warehouse doors opened and the team entered in securing the abandoned building brandishing their knives and batons his lieutenant carried a pistol like himself, Allan ran inside his gun in hand clearing the area. He searched the corners with his flashlight attachment on the handgun. He looked at the only working light in the workhouse where Jackson say bound in a metal chair bloodied. Looks like William was right to send them in, with all the murders lately their boss was acting paranoid, and rightfully so. "Jackson," he said approaching his friend. It didn't look good, both his kneecaps were blown out with the wounds healed, along with various bruises he was missing an eye which was full of ash and cigarette butts.

"Area clear sir," his lieutenant reported.

Jackson rasped something inaudible to him, Allan moved to his side desperate this help his comrade. "Jackson what is it who did this to you?" he asked leaning in close to hear him.

"Not clear," he rasped through his bloody lips, he must have been torched for quite some time since all the blood on his face had caked.

A loud crash sounded from behind them, Allan and his men turned to face the darkness leveling their weapons, the flashlight mounted on Allan's pistol illuminated the corner where a crate had fallen over, seemed Jackson was right about the place not being clear.

A soft thud sounded behind them, Allan turned around to find Jackson's head separated from his shoulders rolling around the concrete floor by his feet spilling ash and cigarette butts everywhere, blood spouting from his neck.

Allan leveled his gun scanning the darkness as best he could. A stabbing pain shot up his right arm and leg and he fell to the cold hard ground dropping his gun. He looked at his arm and leg to see several shuriken and kunai protruding from his. Allan lay on the ground helpless getting Jackson's pooled blood all over his new clothes.

His other men too defensive stances all around him staying in the light. His lieutenant scanned the perimeter with his pistol while the other two guarded him.

Suddenly a specter sprung from the shadows, charging his man with the baton running him through with a tanto. The other two turned to see their suited assailant, running their comrade through the victim slumped against his attacker gasping for breath and coughing up blood.

The lieutenant raised his gun ready to shoot the attacker. With lighting speed the man in the suit drew a revolver from under his coat pressing the barrel against the man impaled on his knife shooting through his chest hitting his lieutenant and sending him down as the last remaining man charged him long knife in hand.

The assassin pivoted to face the remaining opponent holding the dead man in front of him still impaled on the blade using the corpse like a shield. Before the last man could close the distance a blue steel blade extended from the body turning from a short tanto to a long katana stabbing the last man through the chest stopping him dead in his tracks.

The assassin looked at two men impaled on his sword, he pulled the blade out of the two bodies and with a single stroke decapitated both men.

Allan grabbed for his gun with his left hand and fired, the assassin swung the blade around defecting the bullets one at a time, until the gun clicked empty and the assailant stood over him unharmed, not even his grey suit was torn in the fight.

"You," Allan said, "You were in SOLDIER," he exclaimed, "only members of SOLDIER could move like that, I never saw you when I was in Shinra, who are you?"

The man took off his sunglasses showing his glowing silver mako eyes, "No one you would know about, and I wasn't exactly in SOLDIER," he said. He swung his Katana throwing the blood off the perfect steel blade, the blade began to shorten back into a short tanto that he tucked into a small scabbard beneath his suit jacket.

"But what I used to do for the company is not your concern right now," He said grabbing him by the collar of his shirt and lifting Allan up slamming him against a pile of crates.

"I'm not going to talk," Allan cursed glairing into his eyes.

"You're not the first one to tell me that tonight," Kayaku said dropping him, "Lucky for you I don't have time for questions."

"So then why am I alive?" Allan asked.

Kayaku held up a recorder, "I just needed to get your voice imprint," he explained grabbing Allan's face. "I have all I need from you now," He said snapping his neck.

Allan's body fell to the ground in a dead heap.

Kayaku sighed and walked away from the collection of bodies, stepping outside into the rain. Kayaku walked back to his car. He locked the doors and slumped over the steering wheel tired. Today had been a long day, his clothes were covered in blood and he'd have to change here before returning to the 7th Heaven. He hated interrogations, they were long, messy, and most of all they reminded him just how much of a monster he really was. And with the way things were progressing in his investigation he'd have to continue being the monster he was for quite a while.

Kayaku doubted he'd ever stop being a monster, and if he was lucky he'd be put down like a monster. But for now the world needed monsters, and he'd be that monster so no one else had to, pretending he was anything else would just be a lie.


	4. Cerberus Comes to Town

Kayaku pulled the car into the parking lot for the 7th Heaven bar. It was late and most of the late night bar goers were lingering around drunk and waiting for their rides to arrive to take them home. Kayaku parked his silver and removed the keys. He'd already changed into a new suit and raincoat before driving over here, his bloody suit was in the trunk covered in cleaning powder that'd remove the bloodstains in a couple hours, before long his clothes would be good as new. If there was one thing consistent in his lifestyle it was his clothes, he'd been wearing a suit since he joined the Turks and the habit just stuck with him. The only thing that changed was the color, dark grey blended with the shadows than pure black, it was also easier to conceal his armaments in the various layers.

The doors of Kayaku's sports car lifted up and he stepped out into the parking lot, he locked the car and walked into the 7th Heaven.

The door was unlocked surprisingly enough and he stepped inside the warm dry building removing his fedora and sunglasses.

A pair of piercing crimson eyes greeted him as he stepped inside. A pale man with charcoal black hair and a ragged scarlet mantle.

"Your back huh?" Barret said turning around to see him, "What kept you out so late?"

"I met some friends?" Kayaku explained, "We stayed out late?"

Barret chuckled, "Pretty late for meeting friends," Barret said, "You sure it wasn't a special lady?"

Kayaku smirked heading for the stairs avoiding the gaze of Vincent Valentine, "A gentleman never tells," he said simply moving upstairs towards his room. He closed and locked the door hanging his hat on the back of the door along with his raincoat. He shed his suit jacket and unbuttoned his vest pulling off his red tie all the while looking towards the enticing bed that beckoned him to rest his head. He removes his revolvers and blade tucking them under his pillow. He kept his kunai and shuriken pouch hidden in his raincoat and suit jacket. Tomorrow he'd have his work cut out for him. He sat down on the bed and clicked off the light, for now he needed rest.

* * *

"Who was that?" Vincent asked Barret looking out the window at the dark empty streets.

"That was Harima," Barret said sipping his beer, "He's renting a room here, came in this afternoon asking for one and for Cloud to make a delivery for him, been out the rest of the day."

"Something bothering you?" Vincent asked tapping his golden claw on the wooden table.

"Don't know," Barret said shrugging, "I've never heard of any Harima but the guy certainly looks kind of familiar, not to mention he's mako infused, I got a good look at his eyes so whoever he is he's ex Shinra."

"You noticed too huh?" Yuffie said at the top of the stairs walking down in her pajamas rubbing her eyes tiredly. She turned to Vincent, "Oh hey Vince didn't know you were in town," she said moving behind the bar grabbing a box of teabags.

"He just got in an hour ago," Barret said finishing his beer and standing up, "I'm off to bed," he announced heading for the stairs, "Don't stay up too late kid," he told Yuffie, "There's a bed free for you Vincent but after sleeping thirty years I don't imagine you need much sleep."

Yuffie poured water into the teakettle and set it on the stove, she looked at Vincent who quietly sat at the table soaking wet from the rain. Knowing Vincent he probably walked all the here.

"Want some tea?" Yuffie asked pouring herself a cup of hot water and dipping the teabag in.

Vincent quietly nodded and Yuffie poured him a cup of tea.

"What brings you to Edge?" Yuffie asked handing him the steaming cup of Wutai green tea. Vincent graciously took the cup his sharp golden digits brushing against hers the cool metal contrasting with the hot cup.

"I heard about the recent murders," Vincent explained looking into the swirling hot brew and taking a sip. Yuffie blew on hers and took a sip of the cheap store bought tea.

"Did Reeves ask you to look into it," Yuffie asked taking the seat across from him, "I know he's busy with the reelection but I thought he'd be more upset to find some of his employees dying." She said blowing on her tea some more. "People in the WRO start dropping like flies around here and the police aren't doing anything serious about it," she whined, "its silly bodies pile up and there busy eating donuts."

"That's why I'm here," Vincent said sipping his tea.

Yuffie flashed the gunslinger a pearly smile over her tea, "Sounds great," she said, "When do we start?" she asked.

"I was planning to investigate on my own," Vincent said quietly finishing his tea.

"Oh come on!" Yuffie exclaimed, "I've been sitting here bored waiting for something to do and listening day in and day about these murders, you can't get in on the action and expect me to sit on the sidelines. I'm a ninja after all."

"Why didn't you try investigating earlier?" Vincent asked leaning back in his chair.

"Who said I wasn't," Yuffie said winking, "Honestly I was going to slip out of here to patrol the streets like I've done the past few nights, so far I've come back completely empty handed but with you helping me I'm sure we can find this son of a bitch."

Vincent didn't say anything he just tapped the edge of his claw on the table.

"Think about it," Yuffie said propping her feet up on the table, "Who better to help you catch a mystery serial killer than the world's greatest ninja?" She asked smugly. "We can start tonight even, I've been patrolling the east end mostly since that's were most the murders happened but if we split up we can cover more ground."

Vincent shook his head, "Not tonight," He said simply.

"What?" Yuffie said, "Why not? Is the killer taking a night off?"

Again Vincent shook his head, "No, but I'm tired from my journey and I'd prefer for you to stay here."

"Why?" Yuffie asked looking him in the eye, his glowing crimson eyes.

"We should stick together," he explained rising from his chair, "If we're going to work together that is," he said moving towards the stairs.

"So we are going to work together huh?" she said jumping up from her seat full of excitement and stepping towards the stairs after him.

"Goodnight Yuffie," he said reaching the top of the stairs and turning the corner.

He walked down the hall and stopped at the empty room opening it, he stopped and looked at the door across from his. It was quiet and empty but Vincent could tell the newest guest Harima was in there. The others didn't notice it but Vincent had senses his comrades didn't, Hojo's experiments saw to that. He could smell it, the unmistakable smell of blood emanated from the room. Vincent was able to smell it coming off the man the moment he walked through the door. It wasn't hard to identify, after all Vincent used to smell like that himself once upon a time.


	5. Sickening Nightmares

**Eight Years Ago**

_Kayaku twisted the long silencer onto the end of his pistol, the small Jericho 941 accepted the attachment graciously. The small Shinra issue 9mm wasn't as powerful as his .357 __Mateba 6 Autorevolvers but it was much more compact and was able to fit the useful suppressors. Kayaku fitted the second pistol with the other suppressor and took a breath. He hadn't expected to see Wutai like this. After many years of fighting his beautiful county had been scarred by the horrors of war. Countless Shinra airstrikes had burned hundreds of miles of forest and leveled whole cities. Kayaku hadn't expected the fighting to last this long, he thought for sure Godo would have given the order to him and his brothers to strike years ago. Now they were all dead, all taken by the Shinra Company's war, his own brothers lost their lives against their own country men, they died at the hands of people who'd never know the sacrifice they'd undertaken for their country._

_Looking at the small rural compound from the cliff he took some comfort in seeing a simple county home untouched by the bombs and thuggish Shinra soldiers. Now the company was sending him here to take care of the military officials living inside the compound. His Shinra issue sunglasses activated into their night vision mode filtering the forest below in green light. The sunglasses targeted the patrolling guards and marked them. As much as Kayaku hated the company he had to admit that Shinra tech was quite impressive, his guns, his Materia along with his blade able to extend itself from a short tanto knife to a long katana sword. The weapons would serve him well when he moved to destroy the company from the inside out. If Godo would just give the order Kayaku could kill the president, possibly even kill Hojo and Heidegger along with the other members of the Shinra hierarchy. When his brothers were alive they'd planned to kill the higher members and as many members of SOLDIER 1__st__ class as they could and destroy Shinra tower in the process, it was a suicide mission in every sense of the word but they'd be able to damage the company to a point beyond repair. But now… Kayaku wasn't sure he'd be able to do more than kill the president. But regardless his mission and county were all he had left._

_Confident he'd properly scanned the area Kayaku moved in leaping off the cliff the wind blowing back his long raincoat , with both pistols in hand he moved swiftly through the trees, he quietly leapt through the branches closing the distance to the compound._

_Spotting the closest target he leveled his pistol and fired, the silencer whistled and the slug hit the sentinel in the head sending him down quietly, the body fell limp to the forest ground and Kayaku continued moving silently weeping for the Wutai soldier who's life he'd taken and the one's he'd take tonight and many nights to come. The way of the Sasori Clan was cruel indeed, but necessary, for the sake of Wutai he accepted the life of the scorpion in service to the swan._

_Sighting more targets Kayaku fired away with both pistols taking down the guards one at a time with perfect accuracy never once slowing his pace to take the shots remaining perfectly quick and clean the pistols singing with their suppressors sounding like some strange nocturnal bird in the night. It wasn't just the Shinra tech that had made a difference, the training was something else, and it'd taught him things he would never have learned in Wutai, tricks and tactics unknown to him before becoming a Turk. He'd learned ways to make people talk, do things, break them into giving up the very things they believed in most. He'd done these things to his fellow countrymen and he didn't blame them for breaking under the pressure, most anyone would. And the genetic augmenting had made him stronger, faster, more agile than he could have achieved in ten lifetimes worth of training. He was no Sephiroth, nowhere close to the legends status and power, but a fine weapon of the Shinra Company none the less, and soon he'd make the company ever regret giving him this power. _

_Kayaku reached the compound, right about now his targets should be gathering for dinner, the members of the Sinori family would be all in one room together for him to take down. Their deaths would be a loss to Wutai but Wutai would survive, Wutai was strong, stronger than Shinra and one day the war would end and he'd return with his head held high or die serving her._

_Both pistols had been emptied disposing of the guards. Kayaku hit the magazine release and let them fall to the ground, he fed fresh magazines into the pistols and holstered one of the weapons drawing his tanto and extending the blade too its katana length._

_Moving stealthily through the compound he approached the target building, a simple dining room with traditional paper walls, through them he could see the silhouettes through them eating their dinner quietly, two figures stood to the sides, more body guards, but nothing he couldn't handle._

_He aimed the pistol and fired off two double taps through the paper walls hitting the body guards and rushing forward slashing away the paper walls he burst in katana ready to spill blood. _

_He stopped. Silver eyes looked intently at him._

_"__Farther?" Kayaku breathed looking at the man who was on the receiving end of his katana on the far end of the table that Kayaku now stood on._

_Kayaku's eyes darted around the room, finding his mother sitting next to him shocked her rice bowl knocked over in the excitement a young girl huddled close to his mother. The Sinori family sat to his left, Hino Sinori the head of the family had risen from his seat tanto drawn but frozen hearing the obvious Shinra assassin call his honored guest 'farther'._

_"__Kakuzu," Hino asked his farther, "Who is this Shinra dog who calls you farther?"_

_"__My son," Kayaku's farther answered, "Who I thought I'd lost forever."_

_"__Kinzoku," His mother said drawing his gaze away from his farther, "Kinzoku is that you?" she asked. The young girl looked at him. "Mommy is that my big brother?" She asked._

_That was a knife in the heart, Kayaku looked at the young girl of eight, and he'd been the youngest child when he left Wutai to infiltrate Shinra. Now after eight years away from home he arrived to see his little sister. "Why are you here," Kayaku growled, looking back to his farther._

_"__Where are your brothers?" His farther asked ignoring the question, Hino had taken his seat next to his wife watching the scene unfold in front of him, his tanto remained drawn/_

_"__Dead," Kayaku said solemnly, even after all these years, the Mako infusions the growth his parents still recognized him._

_His farther bowed his head, "Then the mission is left to you," he said._

_"__Kakuzu," Hino said, "What is the meaning of this? If this man is your son then why is he holding a sword to your throat?"_

_Kayaku's farther turned to face Hino, "Eight years ago by the request of our honorable lord Godo I sent my only four children to join the Shinra Company, to infiltrate its ranks and obey its every command until Godo gave the order for them to strike from the inside. And now it seems the company has sent my last son to kill us."_

_"__Why are you here," Kayaku growled, "I was sent here to kill only the members of the Sinori family," he explained._

_"__Isn't it obvious my son?" he said closing his eyes, "this is a test, Shinra it seems feels the need to test the loyalty of its members, it has sent you here to see if you will do the unthinkable and kill your own family."_

_Kayaku froze looking at his farther, his mother, his sister, his little sister. _

_"__Somehow," his farther explained, "the company has discovered who you really are, and wish to see if just who side you are truly on."_

_"__What do I do?" Kayaku whispered._

_"__Finish your mission," his farther answered, "Pass your test Kayaku, kill us, kill us all."_

_"__But-," Kayaku protested only to be cut off my Hino Sinori._

_"__Do it," the man said, "listen to your farther, if our deaths can aid you in your mission and serve our country then my wife and I will happily give them up."_

_"__We are all prepared to die for Wutai," His mother said, "Do not weep for us, it is an honor to serve our land in both life and death, we are ready."_

_"__KAYAKU!" his farther said calling his son's attention back to himself. He looked into his father's steely blue eyes. "You are a Sasori Kayaku," he said inspecting the blue steel blade pressed against his throat, he looked at the noticeable patterns of scorpions etched on the blade with gold and platinum and smiled, "You are a scorpion and live in service to the swan, do your duty to the swan."_

_Kayaku held his father's gaze and gripped the sword tighter and nodded._

_"__FOR WUTAI!" his farther yelled as Kayaku thrust the sword through his father's throat his cry of patriotism became gargled as the blade was passed through. _

_Kayaku pulled the blade out of his neck blood sprayed him covering the table, food, his blue Turk uniform and raincoat. Kayaku swiftly spun to the left and swept the blade through the necks of the Hino and his wife decapitating them both. Their heads flew off their bodies and Kayaku spun right around bringing the sword down on top of his mother's head splitting her skull in two. Blood sprayed everywhere in the room covering everything in crimson red, the only one left was his sister._

_Kayaku turned to her, did she really need to die? He expected her to be crying, screaming over the sight of blood and her dead parents, their dead parents. She stood up and bowed formally, "hello," she greeted, "I'm your sister Akiko," she said, "I'm so glad I get to meet you before I die, I never had an older brother before."_

_Kayaku looked at her, a hot wet tear slipped its way out of his eye. His little sister just smiled despite being covered in blood. He couldn't remember the last time he'd cried, it's been so long he'd forgotten._

_"__Don't cry brother," Akiko said reaching out and grabbing the end of the blood sword, her grasp was light and featherlike but even the small touch was enough to cut her hand open, she ignored that as she led the tip of the blade over her heart, "Mother and Farther told me that it's an honor to die in service to your county, so I'm happy I can help you and Wutai by dying and helping you with your mission."_

_Kayaku didn't say anything, he didn't think he could, he felt like he would vomit if he opened his mouth. He took a breath, gripped his sword and thrust forward._

* * *

Kayaku woke in a cold sweat. The sheets of his bed were soaked in his sweat and he was breathing heavy. Not that dream, not now. He felt sick just thinking about it. This wasn't the time to be dreaming about the past. Kayaku grabbed his head wiping the sweat from his brow and turning his face towards the window. The sky outside was starting to lighten with the morning sun and Kayaku knew sleep was beyond him now and he might as well get to work.

Rising from bed he opened his suitcase and pulled out a thin black laptop and opened it up. Just another possession he'd stolen from Allan's apartment shortly after killing him. Aside from an impressive firearm collection and some old files detailing his tax records there was little Intel to collect inside, but the laptop was what he wanted. Almost all of the squad leaders owned one to receive orders and details on their various missions. Better than most mercenaries Kayaku had to admit, and each laptop had a voice code password. Luckily Jackson happened to know Allan's password and getting him to say it had been easy.

Kayaku held the recorder up to the mic, "Shinra" the device sounded off and the laptop accepted it opening its secrets to him.


	6. The Turks are back in Town

The camera flashed capturing the grisly scene before the. Elena looked at the image of her digital camera making sure she had captured the image she needed.

Five corpses, she counted here making the body count twenty one. One body was shot with four slugs in the chest, another's neck was snapped with multiple cuts along the right arm and leg, and the other three had all been decapitated. One had his eye gouged out and stuffed with cigarette butts, his body was chained to the metal chair obviously tortured, both his kneecaps were blown out and healed with potion.

"Not bad," Reno said from the side unwrapping a long turkey club sandwich, "Whoever this freak is he's not bad at making a scene, he could almost he worth hiring," he said biting into his sandwich.

How anyone could eat anything in the company of rotting decapitated corpses was beyond her, but Reno always seemed immune to the sight of death. That and he simply liked disturbing her with things like this.

"We're working," Elena said reminding him of their job, "And what makes you so sure it's a man who's done this?" she said, "Who's to say it isn't a woman who's done this?" she asked.

Reno laughed, "Unless the killer is one of my ex-girlfriends I don't any girls this nasty," he said with a mouthful of food.

"Don't speak with your mouthful," Elena snapped at him, "and stop being a sexist there's plenty of women capable of doing something like this myself included." She said taking a closer picture of the decapitated head with the cigarettes.

"Really?" Reno said kneeling down and grabbing one of the cigarette butts and pulling it out for inspection, "Because I didn't know you smoked, or had interesting ideas of ashtrays.

"You know what I meant," Elena hissed.

"Quiet you two," Rude said turning one of the headless bodies over, "Look here," he said drawing their attention to the corpse.

"We have a stab would here," he said showing the thin red slit in the body, "and gunshots," again he indicated the wounds, "four just like that other man."

"So this bastard runs this man through with what I can safely assume is a sword," Reno said standing up and biting his sandwich and again talking with his mouth full, "Then he shoots the guy and decides to decapitate him, seems like overkill to me."

"Look at the footprints," Rude said indicating the bloody shoeprints on the concrete ground, He pointed to two on the ground, "He was standing here when he was stabbed and shot," he said, "we can tell where he was facing by the footprints and his back was facing victim number 3 who was shot four time, looks like the killer shot through the man's body hitting the other man."

"Your point?" Reno said taking another bite out of his sandwich.

"Sounds like a high caliber handgun," Elena said, "I don't see any bullet casings here, a revolver probably."

Rude nodded his agreement. "It's probably a revolver, there aren't a lot of high caliber semi-automatic handguns."

"How do we know he didn't gather the casing after he was done offing these guys?" Reno asked licking some mustard off his fingers and cursing when a tomato slipped out of the sandwich and fell to the bloody floor.

"Possibly," Rude said, "but few guns use the kind of ammunition used here, the bullets managed to pass through two bodies and hit the opposite wall so we know it's a heavy caliber, probably a .357 or .44 magnum more common in revolver and we can agree whoever this man is he's a professional and I'd doubt anyone with formal training would want to take the time to gather casing in the middle of a crime scene."

"You're probably right," Reno agreed, "But what about the guy with the broken neck?"

"What about him?" Elena asked.

"Those cuts," Reno said finishing his sandwich and kneeling over the body, he pointed at the small bloody wounds that lined his right arm and leg, "I've got ones just like them." Reno pulled his left sleeve up showing several small scars roughly the same shape and size as the cuts.

"Where'd you get those?" Elena asked.

"Wutai," he answered, "Back during the war I caught some shuriken in my arm," he explained, "I'd say we got a ninja piling corpses on us."

* * *

Elena's fingers moved across her laptop's keyboard finally finding the name she was looking for. "Kayaku Sasori," she said looking at the old image of the Young Turk dressed in the customary blue suit, his copper hair was short and uniform, and his silver eyes were piercing almost as if he was looking at her through the computer screen.

"He's from Wutai joined Shinra sixteen years ago just prior to the war," She explained as Rude drove them through Edge.

"He joined SOLDIER and managed to work his way into 2nd class in the span of three years seeing plenty of combat in that time, instead of being made a 1st class he was transferred into the Turks and given a handler to oversee his training, he spent two years under the tutelage of Cassandra Kress."

"I remember him," Reno said from the backseat, "The guy was a total hard-ass took everything too seriously if you ask me, Tsung could've taken some lessons from the guy." He chuckled, "Honestly the guy had no sense of fucking humor he never laughed at my jokes."

"That's because you're not as funny as you are," Rude said, "The guy didn't seem to mind Cissnei or her jokes."

"Apparently after the war with Wutai he defected from the Turks and joined in a number of anti-Shinra groups. Later intelligence confirmed that he along with three others were Wutai spies sent to infiltrate the Company and destroy it from the inside out."

Reno smirked, "Yeah I remember that too, it was kept all hush hush because having a Wutai spy as a Turk was just embarrassing and could cause an uproar, we had orders to kill him on sight after that, too bad he never crossed paths with me."

"What happened to the three other Wutai spies?" Rude asked ignoring Reno's foolish banter.

"According to our sources they were all brothers from the Sasori clan," She explained, "They all rose to various positions in the company, one even managed to become a SOLDIER 1st class but they all died serving the company, from their rap sheet they looked like skilled loyal members to the Company, they all fought in the Wutai wars and showed no signs of loyalty to their homeland. After several years in the Company Kayaku was tested and sent to kill the remaining members of the Sasori clan as a test of loyalty, he executed the task perfectly."

"A man truly devoted to his mission," Rude said respectfully.

"Come on," Reno said, "If this asshole is our ninja serial killer and it sounds like he is then he's just some jerk stealing tech and making money off it, it's not lot there's a Shinra left for him to destroy."

"I don't know," Elena said, "This doesn't make sense, even if this is the guy raiding the abandoned Shinra labs why would he kill those men from the WRO? It just seems like a way to gain unwanted attention."

"Most of the victims were former Shinra even the ones where were in the WRO," Reno explained, "This slit eyed bastard probably just gets off on killing company members, everyone else just got in the way of his sick little hobby."

"Robbing Shinra labs and warehouses dose fit his M.O." Rude said, "After leaving the company he used his knowledge to steal Shinra technology and weapons for the anti-Shinra groups he supported, but he flies under the radar most of the time, killing needlessly douse sound out of character," Rude agreed.

Elena nodded happy that at least Rude was being reasonable, "I think whoever this guy is he's doing more than just killing randomly and raiding labs, he has to have a higher purpose."

An explosion shook the overpass they drove on and a massive ball of fire rose in the distance followed by a trail of black smoke.

"What the fuck was that?" Reno said watching the smoke rise to the sky.

"Our next crime scene," Rude said turning the car driving off the overpass towards the rising smoke.


	7. No such thing as coincidence

Reno kicked at the burnt and battered remains of… something, it was metal and it looked perfect for kicking the burnt Shinra logo across the ruins of the demolished warehouse. "I don't get it," He growled looking around, "I just don't fucking get it! Why steal all these weapons, all this technology just to fucking destroy it?"

"I don't know," Elena said, scanning the broken guns and security droids, all sorts of gear she had been familiar seeing when she was in Shinra, or as she supposed she should say when there was a Shinra. She agreed it didn't make sense, you don't steal things like this just to destroy them. If destroying the tech was the whole point then they should have done it back when they were in the hidden labs and warehouses, moving all this into this warehouse had to have taken more time and effort than it was worth, at least if you were going to blow it up.

"Maybe he didn't destroy it all," Rude said holding his Mako detector, "We know some Materia was stolen from the labs and the mako readings aren't high enough for destroyed Materia."

"Perhaps an attempt to lose our attention," Elena reasoned, "Destroy the junk and leave the good stuff to use or sell?"

"Good stuff," Reno said staring at the remains of a Shinra cloning chamber, "There's plenty of good stuff right here that got blown up, this stuff is worth at least a hundred million on any black market, and that's just the stuff I've been able to identify who know how much this stuff really was, I might be able to make a billion on this stuff, it's hardly worthless. If our man is selling this stuff he just burned a bunch of money, money it would have been easier to leave it where he found it."

"I don't know," Elena said walking towards the car, "I just don't know."

"Where are you going?" Reno asked.

"I need some lunch," Elena answered.

Reno patted his belly, "I think you forgot about the sandwiches," he said.

"You had a sandwich," Elena said, "I'm getting something for myself I'll meet you back at the hotel."

"You're taking the car?" Reno asked.

"You call a cab," Elena said opening the door of the black sedan and stepping inside.

* * *

Elena sighed and wondered how she had managed to work with those two for all these years. Rude was tolerable enough with his simply cool demeanor even if could be a little annoying how he'd keep everything to himself and was rather lax about their job. Reno seemed to exist to push her buttons, Elena almost believed she should rip a page out of the dictionary and force him to learn the word professionalism. Shinra was gone but they still had their work cut out for them, more than ever in fact. The world was in chaos and they had caused it, she had been devoted to serving Shinra in the past, now she was determined to make up for the sins of the past. Rufus was funding the WRO with his amassed fortune and sending them on jobs to help the planet. And right now these labs being raided along with all these murders of WRO members was their job. That and helping Reeves with the election in November. Reeves probably wouldn't approve of them interfering with the election but Rufus was determined to keep Reeves as head of the WRO, after all Reeves was determined to fix the planet.

Elena's coffee arrived and she grabbed the cup along with her roast beef sandwich, she grabbed her tray and walked to the tables outside to enjoy the fresh air.

* * *

Kayaku sipped his tea, the warm liquid was comforting in this cold damp weather, not that Kayaku minded colder weather, the clean crisp air was an unmatched comfort. The rain from last night had puddled and frozen over. City workers were spreading rock salt of the sidewalk to get rid of the thin sheet of ice that had formed overnight. Kayaku had already watched several people narrowly avoid slipping on the concrete.

The grey skies were strangely comforting to him, somehow it seemed inappropriate that he should enjoy a clear blue sky. Blue skies were for better people, not him. He watched people pass by on the street and sit inside the warm café. He watched as people sipped their coffee and enjoying their lunches. He watched couples talk over their drinks smiling and giving longing glances at each other. Kayaku looked away feeling pressure building in his chest. These people, the ones he'd grown to watch every day, they were living completely different lives from him. They walked into buildings without finding the exits or worry about the potential threats inside. The men and women lived simple lives ignorant of the threats that loomed in the shadows, ignorant of the sacrifice of others. Kayaku envied them and their simple ignorant lives.

The sound of a skidding foot caught his attention, a woman squealed behind him and he turned to see a young blond sliding on a patch of ice, He moved gracefully from his chair catching her by the shoulders. Her tray carrying a cup of coffee and a sandwich few away spilling Kayaku with its hot contents all over him. He ignored the searing pain as he looked at the short haired blond through his dark sunglasses.

"Oh my god," The woman exclaimed, "Thank you for catching me," She grabbed a napkin from the table and began trying to wipe the hot coffee off his face.

"Please," Kayaku said letting go of her, "I'm fine," he assured her taking his seat again and grabbing for his own napkin.

"I am so sorry," she apologized, "That coffee must be hot, and it's all over your suit too."

"It's quite alright," Kayaku assured her, "It's just coffee." He assured her.

"I'm such a klutz," the girl pouted taking the seat across from his, Kayaku cursed and finished cleaning the hot coffee off, "I slipped on a patch of ice."

"You don't need to keep apologizing," he told her.

The girl nodded, "I'm Elena," the girl told him, of course Kayaku already knew that little piece of information.

"Harima," Kayaku said, he wondered if his alias would work or if she already knew who he was. The Turks had been disbanded long ago but he kept himself on guard, he kept up to date on the Turks ever since he left Shinra so he already knew about Elena. But did she know about him? Was she here to kill him?

"Pleased to meet you Harima," Elena said, "And thanks for saving me."

"I just sort of reacted," Kayaku explained sipping his tea, "I didn't know what I was doing until I caught you."

Elena smiled, "Well you're still my hero," she said, "You come here often?"

"Not really," Kayaku said, "I was just taking my lunch break and decided I should try this coffee house since I've passed by it a couple thousand times."

"What do you do for a living?" Elena asked.

Kayaku smirked trying to seem casual, he should assume she was here knowing exactly who he was but that was no reason to break is cover. Most agents in the field panicked and broke their cover after being confronted, it usual led to their death. Lies kept him alive.

"I'm just an accountant," he said trying to sound modest, "I'm skilled with numbers," Kayaku supposed that was true to various extents, all kinds of numbers went into play when you gathered information and killed people. But as a Turk Elena should know all about that.

"I see," she said, "That explains the nice suit and tie."

"What about you?" Kayaku asked, "You're wearing a suit as well."

Elena looked away, "I'm a lawyer, but if you don't mind I don't really want to talk about work," she said sighing.

"That bad?" he asked.

"Let's just say my coworkers are being a pain in my ass," she said, "and I've just been given a pretty difficult case for my firm so I've been kind of exhausted for the last week."

"I see," Kayaku said, "Well unless you're interested on how to file your taxes I'm afraid I don't have much to tell you about work being an accountant is a rather dull."

"Alright," Elena said, "Then it's agreed we won't talk about work."

"Then what should we talk about?" Kayaku asked again sipping his tea, the longer the conversation went the more convinced he was that she had no idea who he was. He supposed it was possible, if she had read his Shinra file it was eight years out of date, his appearance had changed since then and his mako infused eyes were covered by his sunglasses. But assuming she was ignorant of his true identity could be fatal so he kept on his guard, if she did know his identity she was hiding it well and acting very calm.

"Well," she said a light pink blush spreading across her face, "Are you seeing anyone?"

Kayaku almost choked on his tea, "No," he said composing himself, "I'm currently single, a bit of a bold question don't you think."

Elena giggled, "Sorry I don't mean to be rude or informal, but you seem like a charming guy and I haven't had a date in a long time, and I need to get back to work soon."

"I see," Kayaku said, "directness aside I see no harm in seeing you again?" In truth Kayaku saw every reason and all forms of harm in seeing her again, there was no way this could be a coincidence.

Standing Elena smiled, "Here," she said handing him a business card, "Call me." Kayaku took the card as she walked away towards the car. As soon as she had driven away Kayaku holstered the 9mm he'd been holding under the table pointed at her. He looked at her card, phone number and everything, he supposed it was good she didn't ask for a business card of his, he didn't have any. He made a mental note to amend that.

Kayaku sighted and lit up a cigarette. He looked back inside to the normal people meeting in couples. If he was one of them he'd look at this recent encounter fondly, most men dreamed of having a beautiful woman fall into their lap and ask for them to call later giving their phone number. If he was like the people in the café he wouldn't be aiming a gun at her from under the table and would plan on calling her later. If he was one of them he'd think this all coincidence, but as a spy, as a ninja he wasn't allowed to believe in coincidence.


	8. First Patrol

Elena stepped into the Hotel suite she shared with Reno and Rude. "Have a good lunch?" Reno asked.

"I suppose I did," Elena answered with a smirk.

"Good," Reno said, "Because we're just finding dead ends." He growled, "And don't think you're off the hook for making us call a cab," he reminded her, "You owe us cab fare and more."

"Fine," Elena said calmly. Reno noticed how she wasn't fighting him.

"Something happen?" he asked raising an eyebrow.

"Maybe," Elena said vaguely sounding pleased with herself, "So what do you mean you've found only dead ends? Did you test the DNA we found on those cigarettes we recovered?" she asked.

"Inconclusive," Rude said, "But we identified chemical traces, we don't know what chemicals exactly but it seems to be keeping us from identifying the recovered DNA."

"Alright," Elena said taking a seat, she tried to take her mind off the accountant she'd met while getting Lunch. Which she now remembered she hadn't eaten since she had spilled it. "What about the explosive residue from the warehouse?"

"Good old Shinra tech," Reno huffed, "the son of a bitch used stolen ordnance to blow the place up, and plenty of ordnance was stolen from the warehouses that were robbed so this asshole steals even the explosives used to destroy this stuff."

Elena sighed, "I'm starting to think there's another party involved," Elena said, "We thought this was all just one guy leading a small group but bodies keep piling up, we assumed they were just common criminals eliminating loose ends in their origination but with the torcher and the destroyed Shinra Tech someone seems to be interfering with these criminals."

"Ok," Reno said, "So then who's fucking with our thieves?" he asked.

"Probably a rival organization," Rude said, "Working to eliminate competition."

"Unlikely," Elena said, "If these was an organization I suspect they wouldn't destroy all that tech. Like Reno said the stolen weapons and equipment is too valuable on the black market. And if they are two organizations fighting, those stolen weapons would be helpful in the fight. We know no Materia was destroyed in the explosion so we can assume it was taken, and the lack of organic material in the warehouse shows that more than just the Materia was missing, whoever's killing these people is probably just one person who stole their Materia."

Rude scratched his chin thinking, "One man," he said, "And in the worst case scenario he has his hands on XCP001."

* * *

Tifa filled the chilled mug with the foaming golden liquid, sliding the glass down the bar towards Barret who was enjoying his third burger of the night. The longer Tifa kept the 7th Heaven open the more she realized it was more of a personal watering hole for her and her friends than an actual business, her regulars were few and far between and aside from Harima she hadn't rented a room to anyone in weeks. Not that the bar didn't pay for itself even Barret had the decency to pay for his food and drink.

Vincent was sitting at one of the corner tables enjoying his solitude as usual. He'd ordered a steak with a glass of red wine that he was slowly drinking having finished his medium rare steak long ago. The front door opened and their newest tenant walked in his long grey trench coat flowed behind him as he approached the bar. He removed his fedora and placed the hat on the polished mahogany and took at seat.

"Can I get a menu?" he asked pulling a pack of smokes from his coat and shaking out a single cigarette lighting it with his silver lighter. Tifa remembered when she had strictly forbidden people to smoke inside the 7th Heaven. Cid had thrown that rule completely out the window until she stopped trying to control her customer's self-destructive habits. She supposed it'd given her some much needed business being the only bar in Edge that allowed smoking, alcohol and tobacco did go together.

Tifa nodded reaching under the bar and pulled out a menu handing it to him. "Can I get you something to drink?"

Kayaku blew a smoke ring, "Yeah," he said, "I'll have a Bloody Mary, with extra Tabasco sauce." He said.

Tifa nodded and began working on the man's drink while he looked through the menu. Tifa took notice of how Vincent was keeping a close eye on their guest from across the room. The cloaked gunslinger seemed to be very interested in the man casually reading off the 7th Heaven's menu. Barret too seemed to be paying extra attention to the man sitting a few stools to his right.

Soft footsteps sounded from the stairs and she turned to see Yuffie rushing down stairs dressed in jeans and a sweater. "You going out?" Tifa asked hearing the low rumble of thunder outside, it seemed like tonight would be a storm.

Yuffie turned back and nodded, "Yep," she said turning to Vincent, "Come on Vince."

Vincent nodded finishing the remains of his glass and standing up walking towards the door.

"Where you two going?" Barret asked surprised to see the calm gunslinger with the loudmouthed ninja.

"Nowhere," Yuffie said stepping outside with a spring in her step. Vincent followed her outside without a single word.

"What's with those two?" Barret asked.

Tifa smiled, "I don't know," she said, "but I have a hunch."

* * *

Lighting flashed in the distance and Yuffie could smell the moisture in the air. It wouldn't be long until rain fell from the sky, she was glad she had brought an umbrella just in case, not that she minded getting a little wet. After some debate Vincent had convinced her to stay by his side, he wanted to stick together in case they really did encounter an enemy. Not that she minded, after a couple weeks patrolling the streets of Edge alone she liked having someone to talk to other than herself. The cities rooftops had become highways to them and they leapt across alleys and narrow streets on the south side of town where earlier today that warehouse had exploded.

Yuffie was regaling Vincent with stories of how she had dispatched some bandits hiding in the forests of Wutai. Apart from favors for Reeves and the WRO Yuffie was having trouble keeping herself occupied. Peacetime was certainly hard on skilled ninja. She explained how she tried opening a school for ninjutsu. After the war Shinra had forcibly forbidden training anyone in the art of ninjutsu and now it was like her country didn't even want to remember the old ways. She'd watched Shinra turn her once proud country into a tourist resort, and now with Shinra gone it seemed her people wanted it to remain a tourist resort.

"I'm sorry to hear that," Vincent said listening to the thunder move closer.

Yuffie nodded, at least Vincent listened to her. "I didn't get a single student," she complained, "I help save the world fight Wutai from Jenova, Sephiroth, and Shinra and no one wants to learn the skills that helped me do it. Skills that were passed down by our ancestors for countless generations, skills that were once commonly known throughout Wutai. Shinra disbands our military and we don't even try to rebuild once it's gone, my old man just lets the WRO do everything instead, as if Reeves doesn't have enough on his plate."

Vincent gave a soft hum just to tell her he was listening. That's what Yuffie liked about Vincent, despite his silent stone faced nature Vincent was a good listener. It took her awhile to learn this but Vincent really did take in every word she said. Barret and Cid, even Cloud just ignored her labeling everything she said as annoying. Let them, Yuffie decided, she was used to people underestimating her. Again let them, ninja were supposed to be deceptive anyways, so she let them label her, call her annoying and bratty. After all she knew just how skilled she was. And apparently so did Vincent. She liked that about him, he wasn't foolish enough to underestimate her.

"I'm sure your farther has his reasons," Vincent said, "the restoration has been difficult for everyone."

Yuffie nodded, "I suppose," she sighed stepping towards the edge of a roof to observe the streets below, "But I worry if we'll ever truly recover from the war with Shinra, sometimes it seems as if they really did break us."

A pleasurably cool hand rested on her shoulder, she turned around to find Vincent's clawed hand on her shoulder trying to comfort her.

"I don't know," Vincent said, "the future is uncertain, but you've been helping your people since the day I met you, I know you'll do your best for your people."

Yuffie smiled looking into his crimson eyes, "Yeah," she nodded, "I am pretty amazing." She had a feeling she was going to enjoy her first patrol with with Vincent.


	9. Auld Acquaintances

Kayaku sipped his Bloody Mary while enjoying his cigarette. His porterhouse steak was finished and he'd ordered another Bloody Mary to go with his after dinner cigarette, he enjoyed the spicy cold drink.

The man Barret moved from his seat at the bar and moved next to him holding his glass of beer in his hand.

"I just realized where I know you from?" he grumbled with a smirk crossing his lips.

"Really?" Kayaku said staring into his drink. Instinctively he reached into his coat pocket where his silver butterfly knife was folded up and coated with poison. He mentally forced himself to listen to what the man had to say before he tried anything he knew he'd immediately regret.

"It took me a second to see it," the former AVALANCH leader explained. "But when you ordered that Bloody Mary with extra Tabasco sauce it all came back to me. This isn't the first time you've had that drink in the 7th Heaven is it?" Barret asked. "Well to be accurate it is the first drink you've had in this 7th Heaven, the other one was years ago down in the Sector 7 slums, in the original 7th Heaven bar."

Kayaku raised an eyebrow pulling his hand out of his pocket leaving the knife behind. "I'm surprised you remember me," he said, "Let alone what I was drinking that night."

Barret nodded, "Yeah you were there as security for that anti-Shinra group I was working with," Barret said recalling the events. "They were giving me explosive materials to use on the Midgar reactors helped Jessie make that bomb we used on the Sector 1 reactor. I remembered you because I saw your mako eyes, the eyes of a SOLDIER."

"That was a long time ago," Kayaku said, "I joined Shinra shortly before the war and I left them shortly after came home to find everything in ruins so I found a group of Wutai resisters and joined up."

Over the years Kayaku learned that the best lies were the ones that contained a healthy dose of the truth. He'd found a Wutai Shinra resistance shortly after leaving the Turks although he wasn't working security for them. His skills in infiltration made him perfect for procuring weapons and equipment from Shinra labs and warehouses. That was the only difference between working for the resistance and Shinra, the rest of his job was pretty much the same. Assassinations, espionage, sabotage, counterintelligence, it wasn't that different from being a Turk. Only this time he was fighting the bad guys. No matter how many time he told himself that he knew it never atoned for his past sins.

"So what brings you here?" Barret asked. "Shinra's gone now still finding work as an ex-SOLDIER?"

Kayaku shook his head, "I'm actually a simple accountant right now," he lied, "I've been trying to live a… peaceful life."

"Peaceful huh?" Barret grumbled sipping his beer. "Well this is the time for peace I suppose, No Shinra, No Deep Ground and no more Jenova or Geostigma or Sephiroth." Barret chuckled, "Right now I'm looking for a house of my own to raise my daughter Marline, I fought Shinra thinking I'd never be able to settle down like this. Thinking back now, I never truly believed the world would be free of Shinra."

Kayaku stamped his cigarette out in the ashtray, "I know what you mean," he said truthfully, "I expected to be dead and buried long before Shinra."

Kayaku finished what was left of his drink and stood from the bar moving towards the stairs to retire for the night. "Goodnight," he said climbing the first step, "It's been fun reminiscing with you Mr. Wallace."

"Hey tell me something," Barret said, "Why'd you get a room here of all places?"

Kayaku smirked, "I saw the sigh for the 7th Heaven and I remembered that it made a good Bloody Mary. That's all."

Kayaku ascended the steps towards his room, he needed sleep even if the nightmares haunted him every night.

* * *

**Thirteen years ago.**

_Rain poured outside the dark study helping muffle the sounds of Kayaku's breathing. He was more worried that the target would hear his heat pounding inside his head. The new blue Turk uniform fit him perfectly, the fine cut suit had been specially tailored just for him. Despite the rich fabric of the uniform it helped him blend into the shadows of the study. It'd been only two weeks since he'd been chosen to become a Turk and already he was being deployed on Company missions preforming investigations and wet work for the Shinra Electric Power Company._

_The door to the study opened and a scrawny middle-aged man stepped inside not bothering to turn the lights on as he walked to his desk, the city lights of Midgar shone through the window casting long shadows of the luxurious study, the only light left in the room was that from the gas fire place that burned making the shadows of the room dance. The man sat down in his leather chair and opened the drawer in his desk, Kayaku moved in. _

_He stepped away from his hiding place and pulled the cord holding the curtains open, the light from the windows were shut out shrouding the study in darkness. Peter jumped as the light was shut out and Kayaku gracefully moved behind him pressing his Turk issue 9mm against his head._

_"__Stay in your seat Peter," he ordered, "and don't try reaching for the gun you keep hidden under your desk, I've already removed it."_

_"__Did the Company send you?" the man asked meekly._

_"__They did," Kayaku answered throwing a manila envelope on the desk in front of him, "I looked through your safe, you're guilty of embezzling funds from the company."_

_Kayaku wished he could have advised the man to keep his incriminating evidence in places less obvious than his safe, and if you're going to keep a gun for protection you carry it on your person not keep it hidden under your desk._

_"__Please," Peter cried, "It's not that much money, it's just a few thousand Gil, and I needed it, my daughter's sick and needs specialized treatment."_

_"__I know," Kayaku said, "You're lucky I'm a nice guy." Kayaku placed Peter's gun on the desk in front of him. "The Shinra Company's life insurance policy is very generous, it even covers suicides."_

_Peter looked at his gun sitting on the desk in front of him, even in the dark room the small automatic looked ominous. "I removed the gun's magazine but left the last round in the chamber, it's all you'll need I've already written a suicide note and I'll burn the evidence once you're gone."_

_"__Y-you want me to kill myself?" Peter stammered._

_"__I can kill you myself," Kayaku emphasized pressing his gun harder against Peter's head, "But if I kill you for embezzling from the Company then you'll lose your life insurance policy and Shinra will empty your accounts to make up for their losses meaning your wife and daughter will be left with nothing and since your guilty of stealing money from the company your wife will be fired from her job in Human Resources and both her and your daughter will more than likely be forced below to live in the Slums where she'll be lucky to get her hands on sugar pills let alone the serious medical treatments she'll need."_

_Kayaku pulled a cigarette from his breast pocket and put it in his mouth lighting it with his Shinra lighter. "You have two options Peter, and if the Company sent anyone else you'd only have one, and that'd be the one that leaves your family poor and out of the streets. So you can doom them to a life of poverty and an untimely death for your daughter. Or you can use the bullet I left in the pipe for you, you can collect your life insurance I'll burn these documents and say the embezzled money was simply a book keeping error on your part, you're and accountant who's under a lot of stress. No one will be surprised, your daughter is sick and possibly dying, you've been fighting with your wife constantly, and you don't have many friends. Making a mistake with the Shinra accounts won't be unexpected and with everything that you've been going through suicide is pretty standard. So the only question left is who's going to pull the trigger? Me, or you?"_

_Tears dropped onto the stack of papers as Peter cried,_ _tentative he picked the gun up off the table and pressed it to his temple. "Thank you," he said, "I suppose this really is the best thing I can do for my family."_

_Peter pulled the trigger and the gun discharged blood and brains splattered all over the room and he slumped down on his desk dead, the ejected brass casing pinged as it hit the hardwood floor and rolled around with a metallic ring. Kayaku slipped his leather gloves on and produced the guns magazine from inside his jacket. Without touching the body Kayaku slid the clip into the gun, the slide slid forwards and chambered a new round. He picked the documents off the desk and threw them into the fireplace waiting for them to burn and he scattered the ashes. He walked to the window and opened it stepping out into the cold Midgar air._

_"__That was pretty stupid," A female voice said behind him, "why'd you do that?" _

_Kayaku mentally cursed himself as he turned to see his handler Cassandra standing at the end of the ally dressed in her Turk uniform._

_"__I didn't see any reason to ruin a man's family just because he made a mistake." Kayaku explained honestly, now he was in for it. If Cassandra reported him to the Company he'd lose his job meaning he was on a one stop trip to a body bag. His mission would be over._

_"__That type of thinking isn't going to cut it in the Turks," Cassandra lectured tucking back a few locks of scarlet hair, "When you work for the company you don't forgive people for their mistakes," she explained, "not even the little ones."_

_"__Are you going to report me?" Kayaku asked, he tried thinking about his options. He could still kill her, if he could draw his gun faster than her he might have a chance. He could hide her body somewhere in the slums, somewhere no one could find her, the monsters could dispose of her corpse for him._

_"__No," Cassandra said, "I won't report you… this time, after all there are worse crimes than having a heart."_

_Kayaku watched her walk away as he debated if she was simply lying to him, he decided not to shoot, a body was more trouble for him and if his handler turned up dead or went missing he'd be the first suspect, either way his little act of mercy if it could be called that was a mistake. Next time he'd be merciless in his duties for the Company, for Wutai. _


	10. Investigation

Vincent looked through the shattered ruins of the city warehouse. He and Yuffie had slipped through the police barriers to investigate the scene of explosion. The ashes of the fire was being washed away by the rain exposing the jagged metal fragments of the demolished building. The charred remains of the weapons that had been stored here remained evident as the burnt Shinra logo's showed in the dark.

"Gil for your thoughts?" Yuffie asked already figuring the analytical gunslinger had already developed several thoughts on the matter worth more than a single measly Gil.

"The police said there weren't any casualties in the explosion," he explained, "but I'm not so sure about that." He said simply walking around.

"What makes you say that?" Yuffie said looking around the dark ruins blackened in the fire and now damp from the rain.

Vincent hesitated, "I think I smell it," he said. He didn't like to emphasize his ability to smell things others couldn't, it was just a reminder to himself and everyone around him how Hojo's experimentation had changed him. His common reminder that he wasn't truly human anymore even with Chaos purged from his body many enhancements and side effects from the man scientists tinkering lingered.

Yuffie didn't say anything she simply raised her nose to the air and sniffed the air. "I can't smell much of anything with this rain and charred remains but lead the way." She said simply standing under the umbrella she had brought with her.

Vincent stepped down from his perch on a broken wall and began shifting through the remains, he ignored the wet ash that clung to his red mantle. Slowly, thoughtfully he began moving away broken pieces of machinery and debris from the warehouse digging through the rubble. Yuffie stepped down and helped him moving a demolished Shinra battle robot out of their way.

"Who do you think would have all these weapons?" Yuffie asked lifting a metal crate warped from the heat of the fire out of their way.

Vincent didn't answer as he pulled away a fallen and twisted piece of metal deformed beyond recognition.

"Maybe they belong to some wayward Deep Ground soldiers," Yuffie suggested ignoring how dirty she was getting as the rain and wet ash got all over her.

"Possibly," Vincent agreed finally reaching the bottom on the rubble after much difficulty.

Covered in muddy wet ash were several charred corpses.

Yuffie grabbed her noise trying not to vomit, "Well I can smell them now," she announced turning away, the scent of charred flesh was prominent in the air now.

Vincent looked the corpses taking in the careful details. "These men didn't perish in the explosion," he said.

"What?" Yuffie said, "What makes you so sure of that?"

Vincent raised a sharp golden finger pointing towards the pile of corpses. "Their missing limbs," he said leaving the rest for her to notice, it didn't take long for her to see. Yuffie's observation abilities were much greater than most gave her credit for.

"You're right," she said, "those cuts are way to clean to have been made by any shrapnel or a blast, definitely a sword and a pretty sharp one at that."

Vincent nodded in agreement observing a container several bodies lay stacked against. Vincent stepped down from his perch and touched it. The rain helped wash away the ash and soot as he wiped away the grime. Beneath the Shinra logo read the containers number.

"XCP001," he read off, inspecting the label.

"Let's opened it up," Yuffie said moving for the latch. Vincent helped her pull open the door noticing the shattered lock on the ground half buried in the ash and dust.

"It's empty," Yuffie said peeking inside, "Whatever XCP001 was it's gone."

"Stolen most likely," Vincent said observing the inside as much as possible. The inside was mostly untouched, the Shinra storage containers were built to be durable and fireproof so he doubted whatever was in here was destroyed. He inspected the metal plate inside the door.

"Hojo," Vincent hissed.

"What?" Yuffie asked outside the container.

Vincent pointed at the plate, "XCP001 Head of Science and Research Division Hojo."

"This was Hojo's little project," Yuffie sighed, "Now I'm worried."

Vincent nodded, "the X in XCP001 stands for experimental," he explained.

Yuffie kneeled down and shifted through the muddy ash with her fingers until she finally picked something up.

"What is that?" Vincent asked stepping outside the container and back into the rain.

Yuffie held her find up for him to see, "It's a shuriken," she said holding up the little metal ninja star.

* * *

Vincent leaned against the upstairs hallway of the 7th Heaven bar waiting for Yuffie to finish her shower. They'd snuck back into the bar as soon as they were done investigating the blown warehouse. As soon as they were inside Yuffie moved to the upstairs bathroom to make use of the only shower.

Vincent quietly listened to the running water and watched as the steam poured through the crack beneath the door illuminated by the light filtering through from under the door. The smell of blood still permeated from the room where the newest guest slept. Vincent heard the running water stop and the light sound of footsteps in the bathroom. Moments later the knob turned and Yuffie stepped out with one of Tifa's pink towels wrapped around her slim body. She sighed contently as she stepped out into the hallway white steam billowed behind her.

"That hit the spot," she said stretching her damp body. The pleasant aroma of soap and shampoo emanated from her, Vincent quietly breathed in a lungful of her scent oddly pleased.

"Shower's all yours," she said moving towards her room.

"Yuffie," he said as she grabbed the doorknob. Her room was adjacent to the visitor staying the 7th Heaven, he didn't like the idea of her being so close to that room. The room that was contaminated with the scent of that man. He didn't trust it, the man looked clean and well-mannered but Vincent knew what blood and gunpowder smelled like.

Vincent didn't trust anyone that smelled just like him.

"Yes?" Yuffie asked turning around and looking at him curiously.

Vincent wanted to warn her about and tell her about his worries, ask questions about the man sleeping in that room. But he had no evidence to back his worries, so his words would have to wait.

"Goodnight," he said turning around and stepping into the bathroom to wash way the sweat and grime of the day.


	11. Cloud's Home

Tifa cracked the white egg on the counter opening the shell and spilling the yoke into the bowl mixing it with the others for Barret's morning twelve egg omelet. She'd heard the sound of the door opening and went to see who'd come in.

"Sorry but we're not open for another four… Cloud!" Tifa swift fully crossed the room to take her spikey haired husband in her powerful arms.

"Hey Teef," Cloud smiled as he embraced his wife, "Miss me?" he asked.

"Of course," She said nuzzling his chest, "How was your trip to Costa De Sol?" she asked.

"Fine," Cloud said, "I don't know why Reeve wanted me there his trip went off without a hitch."

"He's just worried," Tifa said stepping away from him, "With the election around the corner he can't be too careful. Besides it's got to be better playing body guard than acting as delivery boy. Especially in a place like Costa De Sol."

Cloud smirked, "I suppose your right," he said, "The Sunny beaches are certainly a better slight then the grey skies of Edge."

"You kept away from the bikini clad girls right?" Tifa asked teasingly moving back behind the bar to finish with Barret's omelet.

"Of course babe," Cloud chuckled moving behind her and wrapping both arms around her waist making her smile. He brushed her mass of silky black hair aside and kissed her neck earning a soft moan from his wife.

"Get a room you two," Yuffie said stepping downstairs into the bar.

"Nice to see you two," Cloud growled keeping his arms around his wife as the young ninja walked behind the bar and began rummaging through the fridge for her breakfast.

"Yuffie are you going to make Barret's morning twelve egg omelet and feed Vincent as well as our other guest?"

Yuffie raised a slender eyebrow, "Um no." She answered.

Tifa smiled turning around in Cloud's embrace, "Then we're not getting a room," she said kissing her husband.

Yuffie turned away indignantly pulling the carton of milk from the fridge and finding a box of cereal and retrieving a bowl from the cupboard and fixing her breakfast.

"Guest?" Cloud asked pulling away the kiss.

"I finally managed to rent out that spare room," Tifa explained returning to Barret's omelet. "The man asked about you."

"Really?" Cloud asked leaning against the bar.

"He wants you to make delivery," She explained.

"What kind of delivery?" He asked watching Yuffie smell the carton of milk and fill her bowl of cereal.

"Don't know," Tifa said, "All he said was that he needed you to make a special delivery and is willing to pay handsomely."

"How much?" Cloud asked.

"One hundred thousand gil," she said earning a low whistle from Cloud, "And that's up front," she explained.

"I'll talk to him later," Cloud said, "Is he here?"

"Nope," Yuffie said with a mouthful of chocolate puffs, "He left a few hours ago." She wiped a steam of milk that had poured from the corner of her mouth.

"Really?" Tifa said, "I didn't hear him leave?"

"It was really early," Yuffie explained, "You were probably asleep."

"So then why were you up?" Cloud asked suspicious of the young ninja.

Yuffie said nothing scooping up another spoonful of Chocolate Puffs.

"Oh yeah," Tifa said remembering last night. "How was your date with Vincent?"

"Her what?" Cloud asked raising a blond eyebrow.

"It wasn't a date!" Yuffie said spraying the table with milk and chewed chucks of cereal. She quickly realized her mistake and grabbed for her napkin wiping away the milk and bits of cereal off her face.

Tifa giggled, "Really?" She asked feigning confusion. "Then what'd you two do all night?"

"Nothing," Yuffie said defensively, "We just took a long walk is all," she explained, "You know how Vincent and I enjoy our long walks."

"Sure," Tifa said her voice dripping with sarcasm.

"Shut up!" Yuffie hissed as footsteps sounded from atop the staircase.

"Something wrong?" Vincent asked stepping down the stairs into the bar.

Yuffie's cheeks turned red as a summon Materia, "Nothing," she said hiding her face in her cereal bowl devouring spoonful's of chocolate puffs. "Tifa was just interrogating me about where we were last night."

"We took a stroll," Vincent said taking a seat in the corner by himself, "That's all."

"See?" Yuffie said slurping down the chocolaty milk at the bottom of her bowl. "Just a walk nothing to be suspicious about." She said standing from her seat and rushing towards the door.

"Where are you going?" Tifa asked.

"Have some errands," she said closing the door behind her, "I'll be back later."

* * *

Five, Kayaku counted seeing the way the man carried himself. Five covert security in the main lounge he'd determined. Amateurs he thought watching them pat their pistols concealed under their jackets. They also constantly looked at one another less than they watched the entertainment that was all around them, and they watched the entertainment more than they watched the customers.

The whole point of covert security was to be covert. While the big bouncers stood tall in the corners flashing their muscles giving customers cold looks and some even held imposing submachine guns looking as intimidating as possible. While the big guys looked scary the covert security blended into the crowd looking like one of the normal customers observing the patrons from a closer concealed distance and if and when trouble arrived they'd be close enough to stop it quickly while the treat focused on the large intimidating looking bouncers who were mostly there to manhandle anyone getting too rowdy and scare anyone thinking of starting real trouble to thinking differently.

That was the idea anyway but to Kayaku he'd found all five members of the covert security team in the first ten minutes. It was easy, he simply had to find the men who either couldn't stop handing their guns, refused to drink alcohol, and kept touching their ears to hear their ear pieces better. But Kayaku supposed this was amateur hour for him. This seedy establishment was far from a Wutai militia safe house, or a Shinra embassy. No it was much less than anything like that.

"Hey baby want a dance?" a young raven haired girl asked him leaning on the table her face and body too close for comfort. Kayaku was used to working in places he felt uncomfortable in but strip clubs were definitely one of the worst. He closed the laptop that he had open in front of him.

"How about you stop looking at girls on your screen," she said over the loud obnoxious music trying to sound seductive, Kayaku just thought she sounded desperate to make a buck, "And enjoy the flesh and blood in front of you."

Kayaku caught sight of a man entering into the club dressed in an expensive white suit heading through the club and straight through the back room. The security guards didn't give him a second glance and a few even nodded as he made eye contact with him.

"Sorry," Kayaku lied glad he didn't have to give a half assed reason for turning the young topless girl down, "But I'm here for business not pleasure."


	12. Afternoon in a Strip Club

In his own little way, Kayaku liked criminals.

Despite his employers efforts to keep the police at bay. He could only make so many corpses before the authorities couldn't ignore him. That was what make crooks to nice in his line of work. They were the people who were almost guaranteed to not call the police. Because cops meant more trouble for them than they did for him. Meaning he could count on them to clean up almost any mess he made for them. If the police found a body in the strip club the owner would have to explain how it got there, and that'd be bad for business so they'd dispose of the bodies for him. It was one of the perks of working with the scum of the earth.

The white suited man stepped inside one of the private viewing rooms. So far the clubs head of security hadn't noticed that Kayaku had slipped into the dark room behind him. The clubs head of security was far too unobservant, but then again as a trained ninja Kayaku was an expert in slipping into places undetected.

The room was dark and small with a single chair in the center. The man took his seat and leaned forward depositing a few bills into the slot. A panel slid up illuminating the dark room as the dancing stripper opened the window to give the man a show. The young brunette was dancing behind a one way mirror unable to see the man enjoying her work. Kayaku felt disgusted as he heard the man zip his fly down. Good thing these rooms were private.

Kayaku fiddled with his watch unwinding the short length of cord. He slipped the silver wire over the man's head and pulled it taut. The man turned ridged and struggled as the garrote wire dug into his neck. He tried to scream for help to no avail, the cord contracted his wind pipe making him unable to speak, only choke. He crawled at his throat to grip the wire but only managed to cut his neck with his fingernails. The young girl continued to dace seductively behind the glass to the loud music. The throttled man watched as she pressed her naked body up against the glass swaying her hips enticingly. The garrote cut deep into this throat spilling blood over the front of his white suit staining it crimson as life slowly seeped out of him. Kayaku could have easily decapitated the man with the garrote wire in his watch but he saw no reason to make a mess out of _his _suit.

The man's hands went down and his struggling weakened as life slowly slipped away from the man. The man's body went cold and slack and Kayaku pulled the wire away from the corpse now slick and shiny with blood he cleaned the garrote on the man's white suite before reeling it back into his watch, the dead man wouldn't mind his suit was already stained and he wouldn't need it anymore. Kayaku reached into the man's pocket pulling out the keycard he carried in his jacket's breast pocket along with the man's cell phone and wallet. He supposed he just looked like a thief to everyone else but waste not want not. The phone and wallet could contain plenty of Intel and the large wad of cash inside could be useful if he needed to bribe anyone or have a decent lunch. He'd see what the future would bring.

Kayaku checked his own phone the small screen displayed the streaming footage of the clubs security cameras. Back in the lounge he'd used the 'borrowed' laptop to hack the clubs security system. Unfortunately the information he needed couldn't be accessed digitally so he was going to have to get his hands dirty. Seeing his exit was clear of any observers he slipped out of the private room locking the door behind him. He probably had a half hour to an hour before anyone found the body, but he didn't have time to waste.

He moved through the club ignoring the loud music and dancing vixens the thick smoke and flashing lights all served to distract the lustful men who had wondered into this sinful house of pleasure. He hoped the V.I.P. lounge would be quieter and less distracting than the rest of the Club.

He stepped up to the door of the V.I.P. lounge and swiped the stolen keycard opening the heavy metal door. Sure enough the back room was certainly much quieter than the club. Aside from making money as a strip club this establishment also served as an underground brothel, the strip club was just a front and an easy way to launder money. The brothel in back was behind some pretty impressive sound proof walls. A quiet lounge was behind the door where patrons and girls waited and enjoyed themselves before retiring to the private rooms. He noticed that few customers were waiting in the lounge meaning he'd have fewer loose ends to cut if things got messy. He hoped he didn't have to make things messy but as he learned at a very young age things rarely went as planned. And lately things were very wrong for him, maybe he was losing his touch. He approached the bar and leaned against it.

"Whiskey on the rocks," he ordered surveying the room. A small wooden door was across the room flanked by two guards. The word 'OFFICE' was across the top of the door in brass letters. His real target should be inside.

"Hey there handsome," A young scantily glad woman approached him. Her almond eyes and black hair said her parents were from Wutai. Her accent was however local so he doubted she'd even seen their homeland. The bartender set the glass of amber liquid in front of him but his attention was set on the girl approaching him. She leaned against the bar next to him a coy smile on her face.

"So looking for anything special in our little house of pleasure?" she asked leaning in close.

Kayaku kept his focus on her eyes refusing to be distracted. He was sure this girl was too young to be here, she was clearly under the age of consent. That disgusted him.

"I'm here to speak to the manager," He said truthfully, "business is what brings me here."

The girl reached over and grabbed his glass of whisky, she tipped the glass back and took a sip allowing a tiny bit of the cold drink slip past the corner of her mouth and drip down the side of her face seductively. Kayaku wondered how such an obvious trick could work on some men.

"Mr. White is busy right now," she said setting the glass down. She leaned in closer to him, "You could be waiting some time before he's free to see you."

Kayaku should have been paying more attention to her hands than her face as he felt her hand brush against his gun under his coat. Her free hand reached behind her drawing a small concealed pistol.

Kayaku grabbed her forearm and twisted. The bone snapped and burst from her elbow and her fingers went limp dropping the gun. The woman released a loud ear splitting screech, her free hand reached for a tiny pocket knife but Kayaku grabbed the woman's head and slammed it down on the bar over the cold glass of whiskey. The woman fell to the ground unconscious, shard of glass and ice were stuck in her face bleeding profusely.

The rest of the place had sprung into action and Kayaku cursed himself for letting his guard down around a pretty face. The bartender reached under the bar for a weapon but Kayaku was quicker on the draw freeing his revolver and firing. The back of the bartender head exploded spraying the back mirror with his brains.

Kayaku leaped over the bar taking cover as the security guards opened fire on him. Lucky for him the guards only had small caliber weapons that didn't penetrate the bar. He grabbed his cellphone and keyed the controls. The lounges lights extinguished and the room filled with darkness. The clubs system controlled everything from the clubs security systems to the lights and music.

Kayaku touched the side of his sunglasses activating their night vision. Preparation was the key to victory, his farther had taught him that, and darkness was a ninja's greatest ally.

He spotted a shotgun sitting beneath the bar, it must be what the bartender was trying to grab. He picked up the weapon and checked that it was loaded. Under the concealment of darkness he rose from the cover of the bar leveling the shotgun. The security guards and customers where fumbling around awkwardly in the dark. It was one of the basic fundamentals of his training take away one of the enemies basic needs and they fall apart. Kayaku leapt over the bar and fired the shotgun. The muzzle flash illuminated the room for a split second and everyone turned to him firing. Kayaku rolled and fired sending the security guards down one by one in a hail of buckshot making sure to kill anyone and everyone who tried making their way to the exit. It was good this place had such solid soundproofing he'd cut the silent alarm the moment he walked in so unless anymore bad luck came his way he shouldn't expect reinforcements. And even if the rest of the clubs security came rushing in he was confident he could handle them. And as criminals he was confident they wouldn't get the police involved. Although if any of the civilians discovered a shootout was happening inside their strip club they wouldn't hesitate to call 911 and a fully armed S.W.A.T. team would be trouble for him. So letting anyone escape would be more trouble than it was worth.

The shotgun clicked empty and he dropped it moving out of the path of bullets. After several more bursts of automatic fire the firing stopped. The remaining guards continued to search aimlessly in the dark for him. They found his katana instead. He slashed open a customer's belly spilling his intestines. The man carried a weapon and was a threat as well as a witness. He was positive the prostitutes would stay quiet with their employers keeping them on a tight leash. Criminals really were dependable when it came to keeping the police away from him.

The body made a dull thud at it hit the floor and everyone turned to were the man screamed in the dark bleeding to death.

The guards fired at the sounds of the screams killing the wounded man. Kayaku had already moved back into the shadows. Drawing his 9mm he fired the suppressed weapon earing well placed shots on the remaining men. The bodies fell to the ground and the room was quiet save for the sounds of terrified women huddling in the corner. He approached the door marked OFFICE still holding his katana. He didn't need to try opening the door to know it was locked. He stabbed the end of his sword into the lock and activated the Ice Materia imbedded in the hilt freezing the steel lock. He withdrew his sword and kicked the door in shattering the icy lock.

A fat pudgy man sat huddled in the corner of his office. "Who are you?" the man asked the darkness waiving his gun around trying to find the man who was doing this in the pitch black.

Kayaku approached the man silently and swiped the gun out of his hands with his sword.

"Mr. White," he said, "I'm looking for a man named William," he explained, "I know you've hidden him so tell me where."


	13. The Man Called Mystery

"I don't know anyone named William," Mr. White said.

"If that's the case I should just kill you then," Kayaku said thrusting the sword into his chest the point buried itself into his shoulder The wound wasn't enough to kill the man but it definitely hurt feeling the razor sharp sword slice through flesh.

"Wait wait!" The man yelled to the darkness, Kayaku withdrew the blade from his shoulder and pulled his pack of smokes from his raincoat shaking out a single cigarette he took it in lips. He clicked his lighter open and for a second the small office was bathed in pale orange light as he lit his cigarette.

"I… I help many people hide from the authorities," He explained desperately, "I don't know any William but I may have helped him disappear just give me some time and I can find him for you."

Kayaku took a drag off his cigarette the red cherry glowed brightly in the darkness of the room. "I will give you three hours," Kayaku said reaching into his grey raincoat. He pulled a syringe case and opened it stabbing the small needle into the man's neck and pumping the clear liquid into the man's veins.

"What did you put in me?" He asked clutching at the puncture wound.

"Poison," he answered, "And don't bother with any hospital this concoction is a making of my very own so they won't have an antidote for you in time. If you want to live to see tomorrow you will find the man I am looking for and call me."

Kayaku decreased the length of his sword returning it to the size of a simple tanto which he returned to the scabbard inside his long flowing raincoat. He turned around throwing his half smoked cigarette into the corner.

"How do I call you!?" Mr. White asked.

"Call the number for the head of this clubs security," He answered walking out the door, "I have it on me, you'll find him dead in one of your private rooms."

…

Yuffie rapped her pale white knuckles on the door in front of her waiting for a response. The door swung open and she was greeted by a middle aged Wutai man.

"Yuffie," he greeted opening the door wider to let her in, "It's been awhile, I did not know you were in town."

"Good to see you Buki," she greeted with a smile. Buki was an old friend and former soldier during the Wutai War and later fought with an anti Shinra fighters. During those years he'd become somewhat of an arms dealer and even though he'd gone legit he was often the person Yuffie would go to if she needed to resupply her ninja tools.

"Thank you again for supplying my school," she said taking a seat in his living room.

"Don't mention it," Buki said sitting across from her, "How can I resist helping the children of Wutai learn our great traditions and the way of ninjutsu."

Yuffie looked at the ground, "Well I didn't get a single student," She confessed, "Kids these days don't seem to want to learn ninjutsu."

Buki smirked, "Give it time Yuffie, I'm sure in a couple of years your school will be overflowing with talented students."

Yuffie nodded, "Thanks but I hoping you could help me with something."

Buki raised an eyebrow, "oh and what would that be?"

Yuffie fished the charred shrunken out of her pocket. "Look familiar?" she asked hold up the sharp ninja star. "I thought it looked like one of yours."

Buki took the tiny shrunken in his hands and turned it over, "Yeah it's definitely one of mine," he said, "Where'd you find it?"

"You know that warehouse that was blown up yesterday?" Yuffie said, "It was in there among the ashes. Did you sell any of these to anyone recently?" she asked, "I know you try to keep your customers confidential but this is important, I think someone's using these and causing some serious harm."

Buki sighed and stood up, "Feel like some coffee?" he asked moving into the kitchen to make a pot. "Shrunken are rare weapons these days," he explained. "It's rare for anyone to use them in this day and age, few even could properly wield during the war so when someone asks me for a set I rarely forget them"

"So who'd you sell them too?" Yuffie asked.

"As you know after the War me and many friends of mine joined an anti Shinra group, it's how I got into the business of making ninja tools. During that time I met a man who was also working in an anti Shinra organization. I never learned his real name but he went under the alias of Nazo."

"Nazo?" Yuffie asked knowing the Wutai word, "As in mystery?"

Buki nodded, "I don't know much about him but he was a fellow county man and he was skilled and obtaining Shinra equipment for us to use, like I said we didn't know much about him personally but the rumors that circulated through the underground was that he was a former member of SOLDIER."

"And you sold him shrunken." Yuffie said.

Buki nodded, "Two months ago he came here asking to buy ninja tools off of me, I don't know how he'd found me but I sold him several sets of shuriken and kunai knives."

"So any idea where this mystery man is?" Yuffie asked.

"No idea," Buki said, "The man's a complete mystery or at least that's what is name says."

* * *

Kayaku leaned back in the car as he pulled into the parking lot of the 7th Heaven bar. The presence of the large custom motorcycle now occupying one of the reserved spaces. It looked like seemed like Strife delivery service was now open for business. Kayaku sighed, he was tired. No matter how much any one person trained you always felt tired after a fight, the adrenalin crash took its toll no matter who you were. Adrenalin was both a great blessing and a terrible curse. He checked his watch, two and a half hours before Mr. White owed him a call. He should be able to get an hour or two of sleep before having to meet the man. Having an underworld crime boss under his thumb certainly did feel good. He'd already set up the meeting place and finished all the perpetration before he even visited the strip club. Once again preparation was key to everything.

He exited his car and headed for the entrance lighting a fresh cigarette as he entered. As he pushed the wooden door open a spiky blond haired man greeted him with glowing blue mako eyes.

"Hello," he said, "I'm Cloud Strife and I hear you have a package for me to deliver."


	14. War Stories

Cloud gripped the man's hand taking considerable surprise in how strong his grip was.

"Name's Harima,"

Usually when Cloud shook hands with someone he could easily feel the difference in strength. His augmented abilities made him stronger than most and gripping someone else's hand usually served as a reminder that others weren't as sturdy as him. This however wasn't one of those occasions. Usually with people like Vincent, people who were genetically augmented like him he could easily keep a decent grip with him. Tifa was another acceptation to the rule, science hadn't changed her physiology like it had for the two of them but she had trained her body to physical perfection in her quest to master martial arts.

Cloud wondered if this man's impressive strength was a result of genetic augmenting or intensive training that had gifted this man. He wondered until the man removed his dark sunglasses displaying his silver eyes with the unmistakable glow of mako.

"You were in SOLDIER." Cloud said simply.

"3rd class," he said releasing his grip, "I left Shinra shortly after the war," he explained.

"What do you do now?" Cloud asked taking a seat in one of the tables.

"I'm just an accountant," Harima said, "Went to school with the money I earned in SOLDIER."

"So about that delivery," Cloud said turning the conversation towards business.

"I have a box that needs to be shipped to Wutai," Kayaku said, "I have the addresses and details written down for you," he explained.

Cloud nodded, "So what is it you need shipping?"

"Just some private documents," he said, "along with personal items."

"You're certainly willing to pay a lot of money to ship some simple documents," Cloud said.

"That's because they aren't 'just' some private documents," Harima said, "There important documents for my client and I just can't trust just anyone to transport them."

Cloud raised an eyebrow, "So someone wants to steal some accounting documents?" He asked sounding skeptical.

"It's surprising how much one can learn from such documentation," Harima explained, "The Company I'm working for has been having issues with industrial espionage. We've had plenty of documents stolen by rival companies recently and to be perfectly honest it's more than accounting books in the case. We've had various emails and other electronic communications hacked and faxing or emailing these sensitive papers could be harmful so I'd be best if they were delivered by personal courier."

"So you need someone to not only deliver these documents but protect them as well," Cloud stated.

"There's been no violence from my companies' rivals," Harima assured him, "but as you say we do need someone capable of protecting these documents and you have both a reputation for being both swift and adept as a courier and naturally you have a reputation as fighter."

"Ok," Cloud said nodding, "When do you need these documents delivered?"

"As soon as possible," Harima answered, "So whenever you feel you can."

"I think I'll take that list of instructions now," Cloud said earning a stare from Tifa, "I'll deliver your package tomorrow."

Harima nodded fishing a piece of paper from his pocket and handing it to the spiky haired man. "Glad to hear it," he said, "the checks in there." Harima stood from his seat and turned to the stairs, "If you excuse me I have work to do tonight and I'd like to take a nap before I go out."

Cloud nodded watching the man ascend the stairs and turned to his fuming wife.

"You just got back!" she protested not yelling at him so not to disturb the man trying to sleep upstairs.

"It's only a few days to Wutai," Cloud said calming standing and crossing over to his wife, "And I won't be staying long and this man is offering us a lot of money for a simple job."

Tifa pouted puffing her cheeks out. "I was hoping to have you all to myself," she said as he laid his hands on her hips.

"I tell you what," he said pulling her into him still holding her gaze. "We'll have plenty of money when I get back," he explained, "so how about we get a baby sitter for Marline and Denzel and take a nice expensive night on the town."

Tifa raised an eyebrow, "How expensive?" she asked.

"How about you make reservations to that outrageously fancy restaurant you've had your eye on," he said encouragingly. "And I believe a new club just opened up. You still like dancing don't you?" he whispered into her ear lightly kissing her ear lobe. Despite her best efforts to look angry a smile forced its way to the surface of Tifa's face.

"All right," she said surrendering as joyful giggles overtook her, "you win spiky head."

"But!" she said jabbing him in the chest, "you better believe I'm going to order the most expensive wine off the menu and dance till my feet bleed."

Cloud smirked, "Deal."

* * *

Kayaku sighed as he set his alarm and collapsed onto the bed feeling the pleasantly cool sheets. He hated sleep, detested it. When he slept he dreamed, and he always dreamed of the past. Many viewed sleep as a luxury, to him it was merely a necessity. He couldn't remember the last time he'd enjoyed a pleasant night of sleep. Even a simple nap before job was almost always assured to bring him nightmares. He closed his eyes waiting for the darkness to embrace him and remind him of his sins.

* * *

_Wutai had become a mere shadow of its former self. That was what Kayaku thought as he sat in the mess hall of the Shinra compound. After several years of fighting the Shinra Electric Power Company had managed to successfully occupy the mighty nation. Currently the Company controlled all the major cities with the exception of the capital and small rural villages where pockets of resistance formed._

_The normal citizens however where learning to adapt to life with the Shinra army. Rather harshly he had to admit. Shinra infantry were looting houses and no one challenged their authority except the resistance. _

_What was Godo thinking? Kayaku thought to himself looking at his tray of food. Why wasn't he pulling the trigger? He was a Turk, and his brothers were in SOLDIER. Surely their leader would call upon them to deliver the decisive blow any day now._

_Kayaku watched his brothers from across the hall. His oldest brother Iko was currently speaking with several fellow members of SOLDIER. _

_Iko along with Izumi were 1st class, his other brother Harima was simply in 3rd. surprisingly enough Kayaku became a Turk, the youngest of the siblings had infiltrated the darkest corner of the Company making him closer to President Shinra than any of them, that was why the president and his son/successor Rufus were his primary target once the time came to drop the hammer._

_A loud thunderous laugh echoed through the mess hall making Kayaku and a half dozen members of Shinra's infantry to look at SOLDIER 1st class Terry Morris who was speaking to his eldest brother Iko recalling his latest so called 'conquests' in the occupied city. Kayaku looked back at his food feeling sick just hearing the man breathe. For the last seven days the boisterous SOLDIER had bragged about the various Wutai women he had assaulted and raped._

_Terry wasn't the only one bragging about this. Some of the other infantry had been collecting locks of hair or scraps of cloth from women they had violated showing them to their friends as trophies. _

_Kayaku passed his tray to an infantry man, "Have seconds," he said as he made his way to the door exiting out to the building his appetite for food lost._

_The sky was red as the sun set over the city. The broken shell of a city. The Shinra airstrikes had left half the buildings burn and broken leaving countless displaced. Despite most of the population being homeless Shinra still enacted a curfew and infantry men were allowed to execute anyone not indoors after nightfall. Despite the creeping dark may young orphans or destitute families lingered on the street corners begging anyone they could for money, food, or simple comfort. _

_Wutai women who'd lost their husbands or homes found themselves working in local brothels simply to make enough money to support themselves or their families. It was tragic and disgraceful but if they stayed on the streets they'd starve and be assaulted anyways. Many figured if you were going to get raped you might as well get paid for it._

_What had happened to his country? When he was just a child his farther had regaled him and his brothers with many stories of how Wutai had defeated countless enemies. Had fought off massive invasions and humiliated powerful empires much larger than their simple island nation. Many of the victories where achieved from the shadows his farther told them._

_"__We are scorpions," his farther had reminded them all on an almost daily basis, "We are scorpions in service to swans."_

_"__Who are the swans?" Kayaku had asked one day while he practiced his swordsmanship with his farther training hard to become the ninja he was destined to be._

_"__The swan is the noblest and most graceful creature in all the forest," his farther answered. "It rules the other creatures with its grace and wisdom, the swans are out rulers the rulers of every creature in the forest aweing many with its beauty. Our lord Godo and his daughter Yuffie are the swans my son. But we are scorpions. We are not majestic or graceful like the swans, we do not awe the forest with beauty or command power in his court. We are small, ugly and unseen. But we are necessary. When the hunter lurks through the woods and fells even the mightiest of bears, wolves, or boars with his spear, his sword and his bow we protect the forest. We do not strike when the mighty hunter hunts, we wait, and we sneak. And when the hunter has set aside his spear, his sword, and his bow, when he extinguishes his campfire and lies asleep in his tent we strike. Not with claw or fang or tusk, but with our tail, we sting the hunter while he sleeps with our sharpened tails. Our tails may not flay his flesh, they may not crush his bone, and they will not gore his stomach, but they are most deadly. We leave the hunter in his tent, still asleep as the poison from our tails dose its work. We leave the hunter to sleep, and never wake up."_

_Kayaku had been told that bedtime story since he rested in his mother's womb, he'd learned and memorized it. It was his destiny, it was his brother's destiny. Shinra was the hunter wreaking havoc in the forest, the Shinra army despite its best efforts had failed to drive away the invading force and now struggled just to keep hold of it's own county._

_The bear, the wolf, and the boar had all failed to defeat this hunter, now it was the scorpions turn wasn't it? Godo had sent the children of Clan Sasori to infiltrate the enemy's ranks. To enter the hunters tent. All they needed to do now was deliver the sting. _

_Why wasn't Godo allowing them to sting Shinra? The suffering this war had caused could simply end if he would only give them the order to kill. Certainly Shinra was a mighty foe and one simple sting would not be sufficient to kill the hunter but his brothers were there to help him poison the enemy. The simultaneous sting of four scorpions would be sure to wake the hunter from his sleep and doubtless in his shock and desperation he would try to kill the four arachnids and probably succeed, but he'd be dead already, upon waking the hunter would already be dying as their poison filled his veins. His brothers where ready for this, they were trained for this. After all Sasori means scorpion._

_A woman screamed in an alley and Kayaku rushed towards the sounds of distress._

_Using his superior strength and agility he ascended to the roof following the scream. Streetlights illuminated the dark maze of streets below. _

_A dark haired woman was thrown to the back wall. Her soft pale face smashed into the red brick. She fell to the ground writhing in pain, blood dripped from her mouth and she spat out a tooth as the three men approached her._

_SOLDIER 1st class Terry Morris approached the young girl twirling his heavy long sword in his hand. Two Shinra infantry accompanied him with their rifles slung across their back laughing as the SOLDIER abused the young Wutai woman._

_"__What's wrong sweetheart?" Terry asked dragging the standard issue sword across the pavement. Sparks jumped as the tip grinding against the concrete. "I'm a celebrity back home," he explained leaning over the helpless girl. "I even have my own fan club," he growled grabbing the woman by her hair and lifting her up, "I get gifts and love letters from girls back home all the time."_

_He leaned in close and whispered, "Many of them would do anything to spend a night with me!"_

_Terry dropped the girl back down onto the ground, he spun around to see the two infantrymen lying dead on the ground their heads rolling across the ground._

_"__Something wrong sir?" Terry asked seeing Kayaku stand at the end of the alley with his sword. _

_"__Let the woman go!" Kayaku commanded whipping the blood off his blade with a single solitary slash at the air spraying the ally walls with red._

_Terry chuckled, "Oh come on no harm in enjoying what little this country has to offer in recreation," he said stepping away from the girl Kayaku remained aware of the Shinra issue long sword in his hand. The woman was huddled in the corner shaking out of fright, still she watched as the suit wearing swordsman came to her rescue brandishing a Wutai katana at her would be rapist._

_"__I'm not asking," Kayaku said pointing the sword at him, "Let her go."_

_Sparks flashed and the alley was illuminated with a flash of light as both swords clashed together edges grinded against one another as Kayaku held his ground against the SOLDIER's assault._

_Terry had attacked him closing the distance between them with a single lightning fast lunge. Terry was a SOLDIER 1st class, he was trained and conditioned for heavy combat, augmented to fend off entire armies of men and monsters alike. Kayaku may have received genetic augmentation of his own. But he paled to Terry and any 1st class SOLDIER when it came to sheer strength and stamina. He'd have to be careful._

_"__Stand down SOLDIER!" Kayaku demanded breaking the lock between their blades and withdrawing away from the man._

_"__Or what?!" Terry chuckled thrusting, "I think it was time some of you Turks were taken down a notch."_

_Kayaku dodged the thrust. The blade sunk into the wall behind him and Kayaku begun his assault on the Shinra dog. He poured his power into the sword activating the Materia stored in the hilt. Kayaku needed to finish this fight quickly, an extended battle with a SOLDIER 1st class could become destructive and he wished to confine this battle to this simple alley._

_White light burst from the curved blade bathing the alley in an almost holy glow. Kayaku's sunglasses polarized in the face of the shining light brighter than the sun._

_Terry closed his eyes in pain, it was all the opening Kayaku needed._

_He trust his sword into his chest pinning him to the wall. The tip pierced the man's sternum and pierced through his body. Quick as lighting Kayaku pulled his blade from the man's chest and spun around separating the man's head from his body._

_Kayaku turned to the cowering woman in the corner. "Leave this place," He commanded shortening the sword and returning it to its scabbard. "And never speak of what happened here."_


	15. Fires of War

Elena looked at her phone screen and sighed in disappointment.

"Something wrong?" Reno asked with the point of a pizza slice in his mouth.

"No," Elena said closing her phone and pocketing it.

"Really?" Reno asked, "Because you've been checking your phone all day… expecting someone special to call."

"None of your damn business," Elena said, "How about you do your job and stop worrying about my personal life."

"I'm trying," Reno said. "But most of these old databases are incomplete. You know as well as I do after Shinra fell the employees destroyed as much evidence as they could of the companies misdeeds so as to avoid repercussions." He explained chewing on his piece of pizza, "So many experiments and projects were covered up I doubt we can discover what XCP001 really was. For all we know it was some kind of mutated raccoon Hojo made out of boredom. I mean the guy had all sorts of screws loose he tried to make that freaking red cat have sex with the Centra girl. What kind of sicko dose that?! Half the things this guy made were just useless junk to fuel his sick obsessions."

"I'm not arguing that Hojo was disturbed but that's what worries me about XCP001, your right it could be something harmless made out his twisted hobby or it could be something terrible. Sephiroth was Hojo's son who he experimented on while he was still in Doctor Crescents womb and he almost destroyed the world. Whatever XCP001 is we need to assume it's dangerous. So keep searching until you find something."

"I am searching," Reno said, "And don't lecture me when you're the one who keeps getting distracted by your stupid phone."

Elena turned back to her laptop and sighed. Despite having her work cut out for her with this investigation she had hoped a certain accountant would call her as promised for a date. Looks like she struck out again, after giving up on being with Tsung who had made his career his entire life she'd tried getting back into the dating game. Her job often got in the way, Shinra or now Shinra she was a Turk and protecting the planet was her duty now. That made time for relationships difficult. Harima seemed like a nice guy but she'd yet to receive a text or call from the man. Maybe he was too busy with work to bother with her.

"I think I found something," Reno said, "got a shipping manifest from Shinra tower to that lab that was robbed, it lists XCP001 in its cargo and get this it has the code for a tracking chip in case it ever went missing."

"You think the chip will still work after all this time?" she asked jumping on the tiny spark of hope.

"Possibly," Reno said, "Only one way to find out."

* * *

Kayaku pulled the car into the alley way. Kayaku wondered if the people who abandoned these parts of town realized what kind of public service they provided for local and out of town spies. Privacy was important in his kind of work and deserted areas were vital in operations such as these. Mr. White and his men had arrived first as Kayaku intended, dying men had a tendency to arrive early to their appointments. As suspected the paranoid gangster had brought along an entourage of four armed body guards. Doubtlessly they had scared away anyone who happened to wander around in this part of town assuring the place was secure and private for their boss. Thus making things private for him, he'd texted the mobster the directions shortly after receiving the call from the man.

"You're late," Mr. White said. The man looked worse for wear, he was sweating badly and looked pale.

"Sorry," Kayaku said lighting a cigarette, "I got sidetracked… it's not like I'm in a hurry."

"But I am," Mr. White said, "I only have a half hour left before that stuff you shot in my neck kills me."

"Do you have what I need?" Kayaku asked flicking ash off his cigarette.

Mr. White stepped forward calling off his body guards fishing into his pocket and pulling out a small black flash drive. "It's all here," he said, "Take it!" Kayaku reached out and took the tiny computer stick from the man pocketing it.

"Now the antidote," Mr. White demanded, "Give me the antidote."

"There is no antidote," Kayaku said, "That liquid I shot into your neck was just water," he explained.

"Water?" Mr. White exclaimed, "I'm going to live?"

"No," Kayaku said drawing his revolver and shooting the defenseless mob boss. The body guards worked to raise their weapons but Kayaku was faster dropping them like they were still targets at the range. The men fell to the ground bleeding, Kayaku reloaded the revolver and returned it to his shoulder holster.

Kayaku grabbed the crime lord by the scruff of his shirt and dragged his limp body over to where his guards lay dead and dying. Kayaku kicked their weapons away from where there were and dropped the man's corpse in the growing pool of mixed blood.

He waked back to his car and opened the trunk grabbing a red can of gasoline. Walking back to the collection of corpses he set his burning cigarette on the hood of his car. He unscrewed the cap on the can and began spilling the gas onto the bodies.

"Please," one of the guards begged, "please I don't want to die."

"People rarely do," He said dousing the ground and weapons getting a lungful of the flammable fumes, "I'm sorry this has to be done," Kayaku explained, "You're a loose end and those need to be tied up."

"You could let me go," the man said as Kayaku dumped gas all over him.

"There is no guarantee you wouldn't speak," he said leading the stream of gas away from the bodies, "I don't enjoy doing this so try to die with a little bit of dignity."

"If you won't spare me from death," the man cried tears streaming down his face to mix with the blood and the gas, "Spare me from the fire."

Kayaku set gas can down and walked over to the dying bodyguard drawing his tanto and extending it to the length of a sword he brought the tip down on the begging man piercing his heart. Walking back this his car he shortened his sword again and returned it into the scabbard under his raincoat. He picked his cigarette off the hood of his car and took a few drags off it making sure the cherry burned bright red before tossing to the line of gas he made igniting it. The bodies and pool of mixed blood and gasoline burst into flames as he returned to his car driving away from the scene. He was getting close, the closer he was the fewer risks he could take.


	16. The Smell of Blood and Gun Oil

_An audible wet crunching sound was all Kayaku heard as a fist compacted with his face and shattered his nose._

_He stumbled back hitting the wall behind him clutching his bleeding nose glairing daggers at his three brothers as blood dripped down his face._

_Reflexively Kayaku reached for his sword drawing his blade on pure instinct as his brothers crowded around him. It took him a moment to remember that the people who faced him now where his brothers, his own flesh and blood._

_"__What's da meaning of dis?" he asked his voice altered from his broken nose._

_"__We know what you did brother," Izumi said crossing his arms, his thick heavy sword lay on his back. All his brothers kept their weapons in there scabbards. Kayaku didn't know if he should feel stupid for holding his sword up against his brothers, or if his brothers were the fools for taking him so lightly._

_"__What are yob talking about" He said pointing his sword at Izumi. _

_Iko stepped forward, Kayaku noticed the presence of fresh blood on his eldest brother's sword. "We know you killed Terry Morris," He said stepping closer, he didn't stop when Kayaku directed the tip towards him stopping only when the steel point lightly pressed against his broad chest. Kayaku held his breath. Maybe Iko knew that Kayaku wouldn't kill him, or simply didn't feat him trying but he didn't flinch or waver when the edge pierced the cloth and met flesh and drew a small trickle of blood._

_"__So what?" He said dropping his hand down from his face not caring as the blood dripped onto his Turk uniform. "No one saw me."_

_With lighting speed Iko drew his sword and swatted Kayaku's blade away. The fresh blood on his brother's sword sprayed him as it moved. With the sword out of the way Iko delivered a kick to his diaphragm knocking the wind from him and snapping a few ribs as he was forced back against the wall._

_"__That's a lie," Izumi said as he tried to breathe again lying on the cold concrete._

_"__We know a woman saw you," he said, "didn't you think of how this could possibly harm us? If Shinra discovered you killed a member of SOLDIER 1st Class it would jeopardize our entire mission. You are a Turk Kayaku you are our lifeline into the most inner workings of Shinra you cannot simply risk your exposure like that. And if you were exposed as a Wutai spy Kayaku Shinra would most likely kill us to assure we were not spies as well."_

_"__That monster was raping women," Kayaku spat finally finding his breath, "innocent Wutai women, our countrywomen." Kayaku gritted his teeth, "I had to end him."_

_"__You shouldn't have gotten involved," Iko said wiping the blood off his sword._

_"__He was going to-," Kayaku said only be cut off by Izumi kicking him in the ribs. _

_"__Rape her?" Iko said finishing his sentence, "Yes he was going to rape her, she'd have bruises terrible memories and if she was unlucky she'd have a bastard in her belly."_

_Something thudded on the ground in front of Kayaku, something solid and wet, "But she would have lived," Izumi said, "but because you let your emotions get the better of you we had to tie up this loose end for you."_

_Kayaku opened his eyes to find a dark empty pair to be looking right at him. "You should have left her alone or this wouldn't have happened." Kayaku stared into the eyes of the woman he had saved just the night before from that monster from Shinra. Her eyes were cold and dark and dead. Blood pooled on the ground from her neck that had been separated from her shoulders. Now the wet blood on Iko's sword made sense. _

_"__You killed her!" Kayaku spat reaching for the hilt of his sword only to have Izumi crush his hand with his heavy standard issue SOLDIER steel toed boot._

_"__NO!" Iko said turning away from you, "You killed her when you made her a witness, if you'd turned away she'd be broken, battered and in anguish."_

_Izumi made sure the growing puddle of the woman's blood enveloped his hand staining it scarlet. "But alive brother… this blood, her blood! It's on your hands little brother, you killed her when you involved her."_

_Izumi took his heavy boot off his hand, "I want you to look at that woman's head and think about that blood on your hands brother. Because if we hadn't killed that woman for you it could have killed us all. And if we die Wutai loses this war meaning all the blood that's shed, that would be on your hands as well. Now listen up, you are going to take that woman's head and the rest of her body and bury it thing about a good story when you explain that broken nose and remember whose fault this really is. When someone becomes a loose end you tie it up. Otherwise more people die, one corpse better than a dozen after all._

_Kayaku watched his brothers walk away. Harima, the second youngest brother turned around to look at him. He hadn't said a single word this entire time. _

_"__I'm sorry Kayaku," he said sincerely, "but this is just the world we live in. We kill a few people to save a lot of people."_

_Kayaku turned his gaze back to the decapitated head staring at him with cold dead eyes. Even now with her head separate from her body he could see just how young and beautiful she was. Her eyes bore into him. Dead as they were they seemed to accuse him as if the head could tell her killer was in front of her. Tentatively he reached his bloody hand out and closed her eyes not able to stand their accusatory look anymore. He stood up on wobbly legs grabbing the head by its black hair and picking it up off the ground. He grabbed the wall for support as his stomach said enough. _

_His body shook as he vomited everything out into the alley._

* * *

Kayaku rushed out his bed grabbing a bathrobe as he sprinted to the bathroom at the end of the hall. He gripped the toilet seat as his body heaved out everything. He gripped the porcelain rim for support as he convulsed sending out wave after wave of bile until his stomach had nothing left to offer and he could only dry heave at the bowl.

"Are you alright?" A soft voice asked from behind the door. It was her voice.

"Yeah," he answered breathing heavily over the toilet. With a weak shaky hand he reached out and depressed the lever flushing the hideous bile down the drain.

He stepped out to see the young ninja waiting at the door. Dressed and with a concerned look on her face.

"Stomach problems," he said hoping to brush away the incident and go back to bed where hopefully his nightmares wouldn't disgust him to the point of vomiting, "Probably something I ate," he explained moving past her.

"Liar," she said simply making Kayaku stop. It had been a long time since someone had caught him so easily in a fib. "I've heard you thrashing about in your sleep every night you've been here," she explained crossing her arms.

"Kayaku looked away fearful she would see his shame, "Just some nightmares is all," he said.

"Those are some pretty serious nightmares if they make you spill your cookies," She said, "have you talked to a doctor about them?"

As a matter of fact Kayaku had. They'd given him perception drugs and recommended he speak to a psychologist. The drugs didn't work and therapy was out of the question for him. Every doctor told him it wasn't as simple as popping a few pills. So he stopped seeing doctors about his dreams.

"No," Kayaku said, "I should probably make an appointment to see one."

Yuffie nodded with a smile, "Yeah," she said, "so what happens in these dreams?'

Kayaku scratched the back of his head, "I'd rather not talk about that," he said being both truthful and evasive.

"Come on," Yuffie said, "You can trust me to keep it a secret I'm a ninja secrets are our specialty."

"I'm having dreams about the war," He said honestly keeping everything as vague as possible.

"In Wutai?" Yuffie said seriously, "Yeah I can understand that," she said looking at the floor, "I've had my own dreams about those days."

"It was a dark time," Kayaku agreed, "I lost a lot of people during that war," he explained, "I lost everyone in that stupid war."

"Did you fight?" she asked simply.

Kayaku nodded, "Yeah I fought," he said looking away, "I certainly killed my fair share of people."

"Well it's in the past," she said, "What matters now is Wutai's future," she said smiling, "wouldn't you agree."

A smile found its way to Kayaku's face. Not a forced or practiced smile he had learned to wear and deceive people. But a genuine smile with no pretense or intention to mislead. It'd been a while since he'd wore a real smile.

"Yeah," he said pleasantly.

"Harima?" a voice said from down the hall.

Kayaku looked to see Tifa and Vincent standing together by the stairs. "Is something wrong?" Tifa asked seeing him dressed in his bathrobe speaking casually with Yuffie.

"Poor guy woke up with a bad stomach," Yuffie said, "Probably something he ate," she explained mirroring the lie he'd tried to use on her moments ago.

"Upset stomach," Tifa said, "Come down and I'll see what I can do," she said disappearing to the bar downstairs.

"Alright," Kayaku said shuffling past Yuffie and down the hall.

"I'm going to bed," Yuffie announced, "Night Vince," she said disappearing behind her bedroom door.

As Kayaku moved to walk past Vincent Valentine he found a golden claw barring his passage. He looked into the ex-Turks crimson eyes as he prevented his passage to the bar downstairs.

"You stay away from her," Valentine said his voice low and dangerous. Kayaku noticed how his normal hand hovered near his fabled three barreled revolver. It was then that Kayaku noticed he was completely unarmed. He held no delusions of fighting the former Turk. The man was undoubtedly physically superior and talented. Even if Kayaku had his guns and sword on him he'd hesitate to confront the crimson eyed gunslinger.

"Excuse me?" Kayaku asked trying to sound innocent and confused. It was his only weapon, his only defense. When in doubt lie, keep lying and stick close to your lies.

"I don't know who you are," Vincent said. "But I don't trust you. You smell of blood and gun oil."

Kayaku took a breath in through his nose to think, "Are you sure you're not just smelling yourself?" he asked accusingly seeing the gunmen slightly off guard.

"Just do as I say," Vincent said, "and stay away. If you hurt Yuffie or any of my comrades I'll be sure to make you regret it."

Kayaku moves past as he removed his golden claw from his path. As angry as he was he ultimately knew the gunman was right. It was really best if he kept his distance away from Yuffie Kisaragi, in one way or another she would get hurt. After all everyone close to him eventually paid the price of their proximity to him. And she was the last person he'd ever want to hurt.


	17. Trouble Sleeping

Vincent couldn't sleep.

Usually he'd be comfortable with that. After thirty years in that coffin he'd gotten his fair share of slumber but tonight was different. Before it was the Weapon Chaos's stirring that kept him up. Some people had asked him if Chaos was like having another voice in his mind another personality to contend with. Vincent wished it was that simple. Chaos was less like having a separate voice in his mind and more like having a separate set of emotions. Raw animalistic emotions. There were no conversations with the Weapon, no internal dialogues or arguments. At least not with words. Vincent just felt Chaos there within him sensing the raw feelings of fury and anger trying to escape from inside his mind. At the worst of times he couldn't tell where his emotions began and Chaos's ended. Many times they almost seemed one in the same. Vincent would have been happy to have just voices in his head.

But the monster was gone now, it had returned to the planet along with Omega and Vincent's emotions were now his own. At least he thought so.

He hadn't planned on confronting that man in the hallway in the manner he did. But something reacted when he saw him speaking to Yuffie. It was bad enough that this man whoever he was stayed here with his friends but seeing him speaking casually with the young ninja had sparked something primal in him. He didn't believe this man's name was Harima and he knew he wasn't an accountant. Accountants didn't have mako infused eyes and they certainly didn't sleep with guns under their pillow. He'd searched the man's room during the day when he was out. The man left simple security measures that Vincent was able to simply fool. But little was left in his room aside from the 9mm and suitcase full of charcoal grey suits. He even made the bed himself sparing Tifa the trouble of cleaning the room for him. But there was still that gun. Loaded, chambered, and freshly oiled. A silencer fitted onto the barrel.

Vincent used to own one just like it. Back when he first joined the Turks.

Deciding sleep was futile Vincent stood from his bed and left the room moving downstairs to the bar for a glass of water.

"Trouble sleeping?" Tifa asked cleaning the polished wood of the bar.

"Something like that," Vincent said taking a seat from across from her.

"So what have you really been doing with Yuffie?" Tifa asked, "You've both been staying out late night after night."

"Nothing you need to worry about," Vincent said propping an elbow up on the bar and putting his chin in his arm.

"I'm not worried," Tifa said, "I'm curious, you know she almost seems to glow when you're around."

"I doubt that," Vincent said.

Tifa frowned, "Oh don't be so melodramatic," Tifa scoffed, "I'm not blind you know, I notice things too, I've noticed how she looks at you all doe eyed when you're not looking."

Vincent stayed silent.

"Tell me," Tifa said, "how do you feel about Yuffie?" She asked, "You can confide in me you know."

It was a good question and Vincent found himself pondering it. How did he feel about Yuffie? She was a friend of course. A comrade who'd he'd fought with on numerous occasions. He trusted her as much as he trusted Cloud or Barret to watch his back when things got ugly. She rescued him from Rosso the Crimson. More than that he worked well with her. Despite first impressions she was smart and calculating. She was attuned to noticing small details and acting on them. She used people's false perceptions of her as a tool to outwit her opponents. After all she'd stolen all their Materia out from under their noses four years ago.

She always talked to him about simple mundane things that held no importance to him or anybody. He used to think of that as an annoyance but now those unimportant mundane things seemed important somehow. Comforting in a way. He found himself enjoying her just speak of these things. Just listening to her his mind seemed to wander into a brighter place.

"I don't know," Vincent said, "I just don't know."

"I have another question," Tifa said, "Since we're being honest here."

"What is it?" Vincent asked not sure if he'd answer her.

"Four years ago," Tifa said, "when we fought with Hojo and learned he was Sephiroth's father. Naturally we were all shocked but you Vincent… you weren't just shocked you almost seemed relieved in a way."

Vincent turned away from the lovely bar maiden. He knew where was going with this.

"Did you…" she asked tentatively, "Did you believe Sephiroth was your child Vincent."

Vincent hid his face from her the high collar his cloak concealed any emotion that could have crossed his face. Shamefully he whispered a soft "yes," to her.

Tifa looked at him, she knew about Lucrecia and Vincent's relationship with her. She just never knew how intimate he'd been with her until now.

"But he wasn't your child," Tifa said understanding the bitterness in his voice.

"Dose that really matter?!" Vincent hissed, "I let her and that fiend Hojo experiment on an unborn child, a child that could have been my own. I let them turn that child into a monster and that monster almost destroyed the world."

"You couldn't have known what would happen," Tifa reasoned.

"That doesn't excuse me," Vincent said, "I should have stopped them but I didn't. I did a lot of things I shouldn't have Tifa allowing the two of them to experiment on an unborn child is just the icing on the cake. You're aware of what the Turks have done right? I'm no different… I preformed assassinations, interrogations, I threatened and hurt innocent people Tifa. And the one time I had something right to do when I wanted to do something just I let it slip by." The man's words sounded in his head, "I reek of blood Tifa and my hands are soaked in blood."

"That was in the past," Tifa said trying to console the man, she already knew a little about his past sins. But with all his work in trying to redeem himself it was easy for her to forget that he worked as the enforcer of Shinra's will preforming wet work and sabotage all for the company without any regard for human life. There was still so much she didn't understand of Vincent Valentine.

"That doesn't really matter," Vincent said, "Blood like that doesn't wash away… ever."

Tifa sighed, it wouldn't be enough to tell him to simply forget everything he'd done. If innocent people really had died at his hand I'd be an injustice to their memory to allow him to push their faces and memories away. She remembered how Reno had collapsed the Sector 7 plate killing thousands just to get to her and the other members of AVALANCH. She wondered if Vincent would have ever done anything like that as his past self. It was hard to believe he could do anything so destructively cruel. But then again that was after thirty years of repenting in a coffin.

"I don't know what to tell you Vincent," she said reaching out and affectionately touching his shoulder. I don't know about the people you hurt or the mistakes you made. But I believe sins are forgiven Vincent. You helped stop Sephiroth and you continue to help this fractured world of ours every day. You say you want to redeem yourself make this world a better place? Well seeing you happy… seeing you smile even when it's hidden under your collar like when your around Yuffie… it makes all of us happy to see you've forgotten your woes even for a second."

Vincent was about to say something when the sound of boots of stairs stopped him.

Cloud was walking down the stairs fully dressed and armed ready for action. "Hey Teef," he greeted, "Morning Vincent."

"Up already?" Tifa said, "It's still dark out."

"I figured I should get an early start on that delivery," he explained taking a seat next to Vincent, "Can I get some coffee for the road love."

Tifa smiled, "Of course."

Vincent stood and headed for the stairs leaving the two love birds alone. He doubted he'd be able to sleep now but he felt like he'd be better alone in the dark of his room with his thoughts. Before retreating into the darkness he gave a long lingering glace at Yuffie's door.

"Sleep well," he whispered, "Wutai princess."


	18. XCP001

Elena poured her eighth of coffee trying to stave off sleep. She'd been working all night trying to reactivate the tracking chip attached to XCP001. Whoever had stolen it was hardly an amateur, the tracking code still worked but it was password protected and it'd been reprogrammed. This was one tough egg to crack, she'd been up all night trying to hack it.

Reno was sprawled across the bed snoring loudly and Rude passed out in front of the TV. Like always she was the only one bothering to take her job seriously.

She took a healthy gulp of her coffee and got back to work her fingers flying across her laptop's keyboard. She worked her way in trying to maneuver through the system. However much this guy had altered the system it was still Shinra tech meaning some of the systems back doors and contingency programs still existed, their mystery man had just moved them.

Lines of code flowed on the screen in front of her as she tried to decode it from scratch. A tedious process to say the least. She yawned as the lines of data crossed the screen and she grabbed her cup of coffee. She drank it promising herself if she could sleep in just another hour when a stream of data caught her eye. She spilled her coffee all over her keyboard as she jumped on the opportunity finding her way in. She ignored the scalding coffee that burned her fingers and lap as she barged her way in like a tank.

"SUCCESS!" she screamed waking Rune and Reno up. She threw her fists up in the air in triumph.

"What is it?" Reno asked trying to rub the sleep from his eye.

"I got in," Elena announced her drowsiness gone with her success, "I'm tracking XCP001now," she explained looking to the see a little red dot move on a screen. "It's moving out of the city," she said, "and fast."

Rude grabbed his coat, "Let's go then," he said moving towards the door, "We'll take the helicopter."

Elena nodded and grabbed her coat and gun ready to see her hard work come to full fruition.

….

The yellow sun broke through the horizon of the desert turning the sky orange as it moved further towards the heavens. The case Harima had him pick up was small and metallic made of a durable titanium allow. This guy was very serious about protecting his paperwork.

Just a short trip to Wutai and he'd be good for a nice vacation. He wondered what he'd order at that fancy restaurant when he and Tifa had their night out. Not to mention he should probably find a souvenir for Denzel and Marline. He meant to find something during his trip to Costa De Sole but he was so glued to Reeves he hadn't had time to peruse any gift shops. With his reelection as head of the WRO Reeves was busier than ever trying to stay at the top of the World Regenesis Organization. As far as Cloud was concerned the Reeves was the WRO, he was the only thing keeping it together and keeping the planet from crumbling away.

The sound of rotor blades pulled Cloud away from his thoughts and he turned his face to the sky to see a large Blackhawk helicopter following him at a low angle blowing up dust in its wake.

Cloud stopped his bike and allowed the helicopter to pass over him and halt just ahead. Cloud wasn't surprised to see the red Shinra logo painted on the side.

"What do you guys want?" Cloud asked as Reno hopped out of the old helicopter his metal baton in hand.

"Well you went the one we were expecting to see," Reno said holding up his phone and checking the screen, "But you're definitely the one."

"What are you talking about?" Cloud asked.

"Cloud," Elena said stepping out of the copter and holstering her handgun making Cloud feel a little better knowing she wasn't going to attack him. He'd fight Reno any day for the things he did. "Have you picked up any unusual cargo lately?"

"Just a courier case," Cloud said as he looked back at the grey case strapped to the back of his motorcycle. Only to find Rude behind him inspecting the metal box tied to the back of his seat.

"A Shinra BXC23 courier case," Rude said inspecting the make and model, "What's inside it?" he asked pulling a small switch blade from his pocket and cutting the ropes that secured it to the back of his custom bike.

"That's not really your business," Cloud said reaching for his sword strapped to his back.

"I'm afraid it is," Reno said.

"Let me explain," Elena said stepping in front of Reno. "A few weeks ago several secret Shinra labs were robbed and the tracking chip for one of the stolen objects is attached to that courier case."

"So then why don't you tell me what's inside?" Cloud asked, no matter how much they worked to save the world from the destruction they caused the Turks always put him on edge.

"We don't know," Elena admitted, "The container was marked XCP001. We have no data on fire as to what it is but as per Shinra regulations the X means experimental and we do know from what remained of the laboratories inventory logs that it was one of Hojo's side projects not sanctioned by the Company."

Cloud's stomach churned, the idea that Hojo still had a few pet projects lying around was scary. Rude set the box down on the ground kicking up dust at it hit the ground.

"Do you know what's supposed to be in here?" he asked seriously.

"My client said it was just a bunch of papers," Cloud said, "the box isn't very heavy so I don't know what else it could be."

"Well you never know with Hojo," Reno said, "Open it Rude."

Cloud wanted to protest but found himself stepping back and drawing his sword. Company privacy policy or not he couldn't risk any of Hojo's experiments getting into the wrong hands.

Elena drew his pistol again and pulled back the slide to check she still had a round chambered. Cloud recalled how the tiny safe in Shinra manor had contained a giant monster Hojo created. The size of the box could be misleading.

"Ready?" Rude asked his hands on the metal clamps that held it closed. They all nodded and he flipped them open. The seals broke with a sharp hiss and Rude pulled the lid back stepping away quickly expecting to fight whatever came out.

The box simply lay there unmoving.

Cloud stepped forward keeping his sword at the ready. He looked over the edge looking into the bar.

It was a girl.

Laying curled up in the box full of a strange slimy green liquid was a little girl. Cloud dropped the sword and moved to pull her out of the box. "Get me something to cover her with," Cloud said as he pulled her from the slime. Various wires were attached to her naked body and Cloud ripped them off of her as Elena stepped forward holstering her gun and removing her jacked draping it around the young girl. She had Brunette hair that covered her face and Cloud moved to part the wet slimy strands to get a better look at her. "Who is she?" Reno asked collapsing his baton and tucking it away in his jacket.

"She's XCP001," Elena said pointing at a small tattoo under her eye reading the serial number XCP001.

"I don't get it," Rude said, "Who is she? I thought XCP001 was one of Hojo's projects."

"It is," Elena said, "the question is why is this girl important?"

The little girl stirred in his arms and her eyes fluttered open. Her large green eyes looked at him with both fear and curiosity. Cloud almost felt as if he'd seen her somewhere before, but that was impossible.

"It's ok," Cloud assured her trying to sound as comforting as possible. "Do you have a name?" he asked her.

The girl shook her head.

"You can't remember your name?" Cloud asked.

The girl shook her head and opened her mouth. "I…I," she began as if she wasn't sure how to form the words that where coming out of her mouth. "I… don't… have a… name." She said timidly.

Cloud looked at Elena who seemed as confused as he did. "What does this mean?" she asked.

Cloud handed her the girl, "It means I need to have a word with my client," he growled grabbing his cell phone and finding the number he needed.

"Vincent?" he asked making sure the gunslinger was on the other line, "I don't have time to explain but I need you to get Harima on the line I have some very serious questions for him."

Cloud waited a minute until Vincent's voice came back on the line, "He isn't here Cloud," he said, "What's going on."

"Find him," Cloud ordered, "Wherever he is find him this is very important and be careful I have reason to believe he could be very dangerous."

"I know he's dangerous," Vincent said, "and so am I."

...

Kayaku looked at the hotel across the street. According to the information Mr. White had given him his target was hiding in the penthouse suite at the top floor. Some people truly never learned. The penthouse had lots of windows that exposed everything. And looking up on the buildings records the windows were hardly bulletproof. Kayaku fitted the magazine into the sniper rifle he'd set upon the roof across from the hotel. This was almost too easy. Kayaku would have suspected Mr. White of providing false information if he hadn't seen his target with his own two eyes. William was in the hotel hiding from him and all Kayaku had to do was nab him. The electric tripod he set the rifle atop would serve as his second set of eyes as he performed his snatch and grab. His charcoal grey suit was folded up and in his car. Instead he'd donned the clothing of a ninja wearing dark grey clothing and mask that blended in with shadows better than simple black. His tanto knife was strapped across his back and revolvers and Jericho pistols rested in their holsters loaded and clean with silencers fitted onto the pistols. He picked several grenades and flash bangs and even a few smoke grenades and strapped them to his webbing preparing himself for everything. He secured his kunai and shuriken pouch on his thigh. He was ready to face an army. He just might be facing an army.

Satisfied his rifle was properly calibrated and positioned he grabbed the small MP5K submachine he had on the table and fit a magazine into the weapon pulling back on the charging handle to chamber a round. Satisfied that a round was in the pipe he pulled the magazine out and pushed a fresh round into the mag and set it back into the gun. Grabbing a silencer be twisted it onto the end of the barrel and slung the weapon across his back. He wouldn't take chances today. A small private army was guarding that penthouse and standing in his way. It'd be troublesome but he needed to get in and get out fast with his target. He was running out of time so things where about to get loud.

Grabbing a crossbow Kayaku descended the stairs several floors and found a window aiming the crossbow to the building he fired sending the bolt soaring across the street trailing a line attached at the end. Securing the other end of the line Kayaku fitted on the zip line and launched himself out the building zipping across the street to the secured hotel. Two security guards caught sight of him through their windows and leveled their weapons. Kayaku fired his submachine gun piercing the glass and dropping the two guards. Two down, just two hundred more to go.

He crashed through the window and scanned the corners with his gun clearing the way. The little red dot danced around the walls as he secured his entrance. The hunt was on and anyone who got in his way was dead. His mission was almost over, he could taste it.


	19. It hit's the fan

Vincent dropped the bullets into the three cylinders of his Cerberus revolver with meticulous care. If he was going into a fight he was going in ready for anything. Closing his revolver Vincent reached for his phone and dialed in the number.

"Hello?" Reeves voice sounded after a few seconds of ringing.

"Reeves," Vincent said holstering Cerberus, "I need your help," he explained, "I'm going after a man named Harima I need any information the WRO could possibly have on him."

"Harima?!" Reeves exclaimed, "Vincent you've seen Harima?"

"I have," he answered, "I believe he's involved in something serious so I'm going after him so I'd like any information you can give me if any."

"Vincent don't!" Reeves said, "Leave this alone it's all under control."

"Sorry Reeves," Vincent said, "But this is far from being in your control and someone needs to handle this the WRO can stand back and let AVALANCH handle it."

"Vincent listen," Reeves said, "You don't understand Harima he's not just a common criminal-," Vincent closed the phone. He didn't have time to listen to Reeves protests. If the man wasn't going to help him he could simply get out of the way. Vincent could only do what he did best.

He opened the door and rushed down the stairs to find Yuffie sitting in the bar dressed in her combat attire with her shuriken in her hands being sharpened by the young ninja who grinded the sharpening stone across the edge.

"What's going on?" he asked her pocketing his cell phone.

"Cloud called," She said, "Told me he needed to talk to that guy's who's been staying here, said I should go with you and back you up since it could be dangerous."

Vincent cursed to himself. He was hoping he could simply handle this on his own. He had the utmost confidence in Yuffie's abilities as a fighter but he had a bad feeling about this. He didn't know why but he sensed Harima was behind the recent string of murders.

"I assume you think it's dangerous," Yuffie continued looking at the Cerberus revolver strapped to his thigh, "Or are you planning to do some party tricks with that big iron on your hip?" she asked teasingly.

"Come on," Vincent said knowing it'd be futile and time wasting to argue with the spunky ninja. His scarlet cloak flapped behind him as he turned and rushed out the door. "Hey wait up," Yuffie called rushing after him. "I'm not going to let you have all the fun of kicking some ass."

Vincent leapt up and scaled the concrete building behind him pulling himself up into the highways the rooftops created searching the city for the man who reeked of blood and gun oil, just like him.

His phone vibrated and he fished it from his pocket seeing that Reeve's was trying to call him again. He ignored it and put it back into his pocket. He didn't need to hear Reeves protect his actions. The hunt was on.

…..

In Kayaku's professional opinion the early hours of the morning were the best time to conduct such raids. Most people assumed that the late hours of the night were the ideal times to conduct acts but that wasn't entirely true. While the natural darkness of the night held its advantages for stealth the guards were usually on guard. After seeing so many spy movies security personnel assumed the night was the most likely time for someone to make a move against them. So naturally they were more on edge and preformed their job more diligently. The early morning however was different, when the sun was just starting to lighten the sky they tended to think they'd made it through the night safely. A false sense of security was dangerous especially when you forget the early morning still had a low sun that cast plenty of dark shadows to hide in. What's more the night security had an hour before it changed shift with the morning guards meaning they were tired and ready to go to sleep exhausted from jumping at shadows all night and eager to pass the torch to the other guards. In short the early morning was a time when the majority of people were still asleep and those that were awake were either still waking up or were preparing either way the majority of hostiles had slowed reaction times and drowsy dispositions. They also seemed more jumpy.

Kayaku pulled the short barreled Ithaca pump action shotgun and loaded in a shell of buckshot through the gate. Despite their versatility Kayaku generally avoided shotguns. They were loud, large and difficult to conceal. But concealment meant nothing here he was already armed to the teeth and dressed in the dark grey ninja garb he only wore in the most extreme of circumstances with his Kevlar vest and tactical belts carrying an arsenal already. Also he was in a brand new high class hotel. The contractors that built this place made sure to use thick concrete walls with rubber insulators to soundproof the halls and individual rooms. It was great for hotel guests who wanted to blast their TVs at max volume or throw big parties without worrying about disturbing their neighbors. It was also good for him because he was confident no one would hear him blast the lock off the door of the security center. He had to take things like this into account. Otherwise he wouldn't live to regret it. He studied and memorized very detail meticulously learning everything he possibly could. Information was his trade as a spy and he needed to know everything he could. Because what you don't dose hurt you, in fact it usually kills you.

Pressing the muzzle of the gun against the deadbolt he fired splintering the wooden door apart. The heavy steel lock fell away.

When someone blows a hole in your door it is usually not recommended to stare at said hole like a gawking idiot because usually the person who blasted the lock away is planning to pop a flash bang inside blinding you and your fellow idiot friends. After the loud pop and flash of light Kayaku rushed in drawing his revolver. Two guards were on the floor clutching their ears and moaning in agony covered in spilled coffee. Kayaku put them down three shots each two in the chest and one in the head. Through, Kayaku preferred to keep things through.

Returning the shotgun to his back he opened the revolvers cylinder and spilled out the spent casings he replaced the rounds with a speed loader and got to work on the security room. He looked at the security monitors and watched the screens flicker through various feeds from the camera's through the hotel. The penthouse could only be accessed by a private elevator and that was being carefully guarded by an entire squad of armed security guards. With the guards watching the cameras out of the picture no one could tell them he was heading their way. Looking at the bodies of two guards he pulled one of their radios from their belt and checked the channel. He matched his own radio headset to their frequency and listened to the security chatter. Hearing footsteps outside he leveled his submachine gun seeing a guard peek his head through the shattered door the red dot of the laser sight. The man's skull splintered as a burst of automatic fire struck him. Kayaku jumped out the door rolling across the threshold with expert grace and putting a bead on the guard's three companions. They'd already reached for their radios.

"We got a hostile on the tenth floor," the guards screamed into their mics only to be cut down by automatic fire. Kayaku dropped them emptying what remained in the gun. Standing up he reloaded the weapon slapping in a fresh magazine and chambering the top round. He slung the gun to his side and drew his revolver reaching for his shotgun. His ear was full of radio chatter as the alerted guards communicated with one another about the new threat. It wouldn't be long until the police arrived in force. Ten minutes at least for the first wave and maybe twenty for the SWAT team. He didn't want to kill any cops but if things got out of hand it could very well come to that. He pushed beanbag round into the twelve gauge, he was going to take Mr. William alive but he'd probably need help in the police were on their way. He slung the shotgun across his back again and took his submachine gun in one hand his other grabbed his cell phone and punched in the number he needed.

"The shit just hit the fan," he confessed into his Bluetooth headset, "I need your help… Cissnei."

….

Barret's phone rang waking him from his from deep sleep. He reached over to his nightstand to grab his cell unwilling to open his eyes to the harsh morning sun. He'd drunken more than he ought to last night and now he was paying the consequences. His head throbbed from the hangover he'd given himself and he blindly hit the accept button to start the call.

"I don't know what fucking time it is," he growled into the phone, "But it's too early to be calling me fool."

"Barret?" Reeves voice said, "Thank god you answered Cloud, Vincent, and Yuffie aren't responding."

"Reeves?" Barret asked shielding his eyes from the sun as he opened them. With the reelection on its way Reeves hardly ever called unless it was very important.

"Listen," Reeves said, "I need your help, no one is willing to listen to me. I need you to find a man named Kayaku," he explained, "Or you may know him as Harima."

"Harima?" Barret said, "What do you want me to do?"

"Help him," Reeves answered.

...

**Why dose Reeves want Barret to help Kayaku? Why and how dose Kayaku know Cissnei the former Turk that disappeared years ago? The answers are around the corner getting closer and closer and this story is far from over. Things are about to get heavy people. I'd like to thank all my followers especially CupofTeaforAliceandHatter who's reviews and guessing has entertained me and kept me typing away. Answers are getting closer and closer I hope you all can take the suspense. **


	20. Experimental Cetra Project

Cloud looked at his ringing phone. Reeves was calling. He hit the ignore button and returned it to his pocket. He didn't have time to speak with him right now. Cloud and the little girl had boarded the Shinra helicopter with the Turks flying back as fast as they could towards the city of Edge to apprehend the man named Harima.

"You said you met him?" Cloud asked Elena who was inspecting the little girl making sure she was perfectly healthy. With all that strange green slime wiped off her she looked a thousand times better. Her brown hair was starting to curl and Rude was inspecting the case she'd been sleeping in while Reno flew the chopper.

"I met a named Harima," Elena said, "and he fits your description." She explained, "But we think he might be a man named Kayaku Sasori a former Turk."

"This guy is one of you?" Cloud asked, "He's a Turk."

"He was," Rude said, "Now he's just a loose cannon and if our suspicions are right he's stealing certain Shinra Tech like this girl."

"Why this girl?" Cloud asked, "What value is she to anyone?"

"Who knows?" Reno said from the cockpit, "He was probably selling her to some pedophile for a profit some crooks make a lot of money kidnapping and selling children to sickos."

"I think it's more complicated than that," Rude said closing the metal case, "This green stuff in the case is a protein jelly full of nutrients, it's used in mako tanks and helps keep people fit and healthy despite a lack of food or exercise. A 3C2X computer was also at the bottom of the case and linked to her."

"So what does that mean?" Cloud asked looking at the sleeping girl in Elena's arms.

"That computer was unlinking things into her brain," Rude explained, "Teaching her… It's too early to say anything for sure but… I think she's a clone."

Cloud looked at the slumbering kid strapped into the helicopter seat. A clone. The girl's curly brown and her deep emerald green eyes. Cloud had felt like she'd seen her somewhere before and now he realized he had, just an older more mature version. The original version. Aerith.

A thousand lights clicked on in Cloud's head.

"XCP001," Cloud said discovering the meaning, "XCP… Experimental Cetra Project… Hojo must have cloned Aerith meaning this girl is…"

They all looked at the sleeping child strapped into the seat sleeping peacefully without much of a care in the world. Cloud tightened his fists in anger leather gloves creaked as his fists shook.

"That bastard," he growled, "that bastard Hojo couldn't have the real thing so he grew his own in a test tube to experiment on later."

Elena sighed, "Honestly we shouldn't be surprised," she said, "This fits Hojo's M.O. perfectly and he had plenty of opportunities to get genetic samples."

"He probably did it when he held her captive in Shinra Tower," he said through clenched teeth, "Before trying to make Red XIII have sex with her the freak."

"No one is questioning Hojo was deranged," Elena said, "but the real question is why would this man want her? What could he do with a clone of a Cetra? It's not just a simple prototype weapon or something to sell of the black market. Even if he was heartless enough to sell her he destroyed millions of Gil worth of equipment much more valuable than a simple child slave. I don't like to think of where this could possibly be going."

Reno peeked his head back from the cockpit, "Caught something on the police scanner," he said, "Looks like someone's wreaking havoc at the Ivory Tower Hotel, sounds like it could be our man."

"Take us there," Cloud ordered, "I need to have a chat with this Mr. Sasori."

"Sorry," Rude said taking hold of one of the door mounted minigun checking that the massive multi barreled weapon was loaded and ready to go, "But I can't promise they'll be much room for talking."

….

The elevator was on its way up to them. The penthouse security guards gathered in the hall facing the door ready to ambush whoever was coming up. If the elevator was moving that means the team placed to guard it was gone. The tiny light atop the elevator doors showed it was getting closer. The guards leveled their weapons clicking off the safeties. They stared down the sights of their assault rifles when the elevator gave its little ping signaling it had reached the penthouse floor.

The double metal doors open and everyone held their breath. White smoke filled the elevator drifting out slowly seeping into the hall. They couldn't see anything in there.

"OPEN FIRE!" one of them shouted and that's just what they did.

Everyone squeezed the trigger pouring lead into the tiny space. Gun smoke filled the air and cold barrels turned hot as the security guards emptied their magazines into the cramped elevator. "Cease fire!" the leader cried. Everyone took their fingers off the triggers and reloaded jamming in fresh magazines into their guns.

Three guards took point slowly approaching the elevator with their guns raised. They edged closer and closer one step at a time standing at the threshold of the elevator. One man stepped into the tiny shot out room disappearing into the thick haze.

"It's empty," he reported when the distinct cough of a silencer quieted him. A metal cylinder dropped from the maintenance hatch and rolled across the marble floor.

"FLASHBANG!" one of the guards cried as the stun grenade detonated blinding and deafening the guards in range. Kayaku popped down from the hatch hanging upside down and aiming his submachine gun down hall aiming for the guards unaffected by the flashbang. He looked through the haze with his infrared goggles put a bead on the guards and fired dropping them. He fell from the hatch and landed on his feet he dropped the gun and let it hang buy its strap as he reached for his blade and pistol. He decapitated the two closes guards and squeezed rounds off into anyone still moving. More guards filled the hall and fired at him strafing the hallways with automatic fire.

Kayaku ducked into the coat closet and pulled out his cellphone linking up with the high powered rifle he'd placed in the building across the street. The view from the rifles scope was on the screen in front of him and he lined a shot up and fired. There really was an app for everything these days he thought darkly as he watched the 12.7mm sniper shot piece the heavy glass with enough force to blow apart two of the guards making a bloody mess of things. The others turned to face the window in confusion but Kayaku wasn't about to give them time to think he lined up another shot and blasted a guards head clean off his shoulders painting the walls red.

He watched the guard's spring for cover against the sniper. He doubted anything in this penthouse could stop a 12.7mm round but he only had nine rounds left and there was no sense spending it all on these clowns. He prepped a frag grenade and tossed it down the hall. Windows, furniture and bodies blew apart and he sheathed his sword and readied his sub machine gun. He was positive his target had fled to the panic room meaning he was free to clear the penthouse of hostiles. He kicked the bedroom door down and sprayed the guards inside dropping them before he tossed in a frag to finish them and moved onto the next room. That's when he heard the sound of rotor blades.

A police helicopter shone its lights on him as the two SWAT team members at the door leveled their weapons at him. With a loud bloop sound one of the cops shot a grenade launcher firing in several canisters of tear gas.

Kayaku ducked behind a couch and grabbed the gasmask he had hooked to his belt and pulled it on. He crawled over to a solid wall. He couldn't take chances not even with the police. He grabbed for his phone and linked up with the rifle again this time setting the sights on the chopper. He fired and clipped the helicopter's tail rotor shattering it. The helicopter broke into an uncontrollable spin as it went down. The pilot struggled for control of the aircraft as it went out of control. The copter slammed into the opposite building crashing through the walls and hanging there.

Kayaku hoped some of the officers had survived but returned his mind to the mission. Letting the machine gun hang by its strap he pulled the beanbag loaded shotgun from his back along with his blade. He moved to the steel panic room.

Kayaku activated the fire Materia set into the hilt of the blade. The blade glowed red with magic and he stabbed it into the door melting through the lock like a plasma cutter.

Kayaku pried the door open and came face to face with his target. Mr. William leveled a pistol at him but with one hand Kayaku fired the twelve gauge striking him in the chest with the beanbag. He doubled back into the wall in pain the nonlethal slug had knocked the wind out of him.

"Hello William," Kayaku greeted returning the gun to his back and pulling a syringe case from his belt. He stabbed the needle into the man's neck pumping him with anesthetic to keep him docile until he needed he needed him otherwise.

He pulled the limp body from the safe room and strapped William to his chest securing him with belts. Moving over to the balcony Kayaku jumped over the side falling to earth. He allowed himself to free fall for a time looking down he saw an assembled collection of police teams surrounding the streets around the hotel. They'd erected barriers and road blocks nearby. Kayaku would have to contend with them soon. Where the hell was Cissnei? She was supposed to be helping him get the police away from him.

Confident he was close enough to his target landing zone he pulled the zip cord and released his parachute floating down across building. Doubtless police snipers had their sights on him but with William playing hostage they wouldn't risk the shot between him the parachute and the other variables snipers had to account for it was too risky.

More squad scars flashed their lights and moved out to capture him as he hit the ground. Now would be a good time for that backup he'd called for.

He touched down on his target landing zone. Right on the roof of an old six story parking garage where his charcoal grey sports car was waiting for him. He touched down and dragged William over to his getaway vehicle. The flashy sports car was hardly inconspicuous but he was ditching town ASAP and he needed as much horsepower as possible to put this city behind him. He hoped Tifa appreciated the briefcase full of money he left for her under his bed, it would more than cover any cost he made for them and then some. Cloud wouldn't be needing to make any deliveries for a long time with the king's ransom he left for them.

He packed William into the trunk and locked it. A small metal shuriken struck the back of his car embedding its point into the armored body he spun around drawing his revolver. He lined the sights up aiming between Yuffie's brown eyes. Vincent was behind her with his own weapon raised.

"Going somewhere?" she asked holding up her giant shuriken.

Every instinct in him was screaming for him to shoot but his hand felt ridged and stiff. Kayaku was an assassin forged from years of training hardened into a deadly weapon capable of killing any mortal efficiently and effectively. Or so he was supposed to be.

He couldn't kill her. Why?

He'd disposed of countless men and women, guilty and innocent alike. Innocent people died, collateral damage was a part of the job, he'd shot so many people he'd lost count. What was another squeeze of the trigger?

He looked her in the eye then shifted his gaze down the barrels of Valentine's revolver. It would be a gamble but if he dropped Yuffie he could see who was faster and put a slug into the man. All he had to do was squeeze.

It should be so simple.

But it wasn't. No matter how much he willed it his hand was as stiff as stone. No force on heaven or earth could make him squeeze that trigger.


	21. Chase

Kayaku dropped the gun.

It clattered on the pavement and he raised his hands.

"Smart choice," Yuffie said lowering the shuriken with a smug grin on her face. Vincent quietly kept his gun trained on him. This was bad.

A sharp red shuriken flew across the sky towards the crimson gunslinger. Cissnei had arrived. The weapon struck Vincent's gun knocking the weapon from his grasp and opening the window Kayaku needed. Yuffie spun around to see what had happened and Kayaku burst into action dropping to his knees and rolling on the ground he unslung the shotgun from his back taking aim.

"NO!" Vincent shouted as he squeezed the trigger. The gun fired and Yuffie dropped to the ground in a heap.

Vincent grabbed his gun and took aim at him firing. The rounds hit Kayaku square in the chest knocking in back into the car the Kevlar vest taking most of the damage.

With three loud bloops smoke canisters streaked across the sky and landed on the pavement obscuring the area in a white haze. Cissnei was on the top of an adjoining building with the grenade launcher dressed in her old Turk uniform. "GO!" She shouted, "Get out of here!"

Kayaku nodded scrambling to get into his car and took off descending into the lower levels of the parking garage.

Cissnei turned her attention to the police below firing the remaining smoke canisters into the streets below to help cover his escape before taking off herself.

Vincent couldn't see his target though the haze and when he heard the car take off and drive down the parking garage. He didn't care. He raced off to Yuffie's side. He grabbed her and rolled her over to inspect the wound expecting the worst.

Yuffie groaned and clutched at her chest. Vincent removed her hand and sighed in relief seeing no blood. A small red beanbag lay on the ground next to her and he knew she would be fine. Beanbag rounds in a shotgun would knock the wind out of a person but they were nonlethal she would have one hell of a bruise and possibly a couple broken ribs.

"What are you doing Vince," Yuffie wheezed finding her breath, "After him."

Vincent nodded. She was right, with her alive he needed to focus on the task at hand and catch Harima.

He sprinted towards the edge and looked down. His sensed edged him forward and he leapt over the side plummeting towards earth. The grey spots car came speeding out of the parking garage and Vincent landed right atop it digging his golden claw into the body and letting it carry him off red cloak flapping all the way as he sped away into the streets.

Kayaku heard the thud on his roof and looked up to see metal digits digging into the roof of his car. He cursed and drew is one remaining revolver aiming at the roof. He wasn't thrilled with the idea of fighting the legendary Vincent Valentine but he had little choice at this point. He fired up into the roof as he swerved the car hoping to throw the gunslinger off.

Vincent held on tightly as the vehicle took a sharp turn threatening to throw him from the roof. Bullets shot up from the car as the driver tried to get rid of him. Things wouldn't be that easy.

Some of the rounds pierced his body but Vincent ignored them. His body was sturdier than that of most humans and healed rapidly as long as he didn't take too many more of those slugs to the chest he'd be fine.

Police sirens blared as squad cars followed them flashing their lights and staying right on Kayaku's trail.

Kayaku looked into the rearview mirror as he reloaded the revolver dumping the spent rounds into his lap ignoring how hot they were. As he pushed another speed loader into the cylinder.

He turned into a narrow alley and set the car into an hundred and eighty degree turn facing the pursuing squad cars.

He put his car in reverse and stomped on the gas speeding backwards and he aimed out the window. The squad cars could only follow him through the alley one at a time funneling them in. He fired at the squad car in front piecing the hood and engine block stopping it in its tracks trapping it in the alley and blocking the path of the others.

He turned the car around as he exited the alley and put his focus back into the troublesome gunslinger atop his car. He rounded a corner and reloaded the gun again. Hot casings spilled to his feet as he one handedly pushed fresh rounds in.

Vincent stabbed his metal plated boots into the side and grabbed for his Cerberus aiming at the engine block firing all three barrels through the hood emptying the revolver just as Kayaku had to the police cruisers. Black motor oil bubbled up from the bullet holes like blood.

Vincent leapt off the slowing vehicle and watched as it moved away into an alley slowing down every second. Police cars came up from behind him.

"Vincent!" Yuffie called out from the passenger seats of one of them. He grabbed onto the side of one of the speeding vehicles taking off with the police joining their hunt. Without wheels he'd be slow as easy to follow.

…

Kayaku turned the slowing car into an alley and hopped out. He rushed to the trunk and pulled the drugged William from it. He didn't know how he was going to escape now that his car was trashed and the entire Edge police force on his tail but he wasn't done. He had to keep trying.

He grabbed a grenade and pulled the pin tossing it into his shot up car. In the end it was evidence and it needed to be disposed up.

He rushed his hostage down the alley. William wasn't exactly unconscious but he was so drugged up he did almost anything walking on his own two feet as they fled away from the burning vehicle. He rounded a corner and found himself staring at sever SWAT team members with raised weapons. He ducked back hiding around the corner as they fired. Kayaku grabbed his machinegun and blind fired spraying the area with bullets. He doubted the weak 9mm rounds would do much against a fully armored SWAT team. He just need them to back off. Unfortunately it wasn't working.

Brick and concrete fragments sprayed his face as they shot the corner he hid behind. He cursed as he fitted another mag into the gun. He had only a handful on flashbangs left and he needed to save them. As much as it pained him to kill police officers he grabbed for one of his frag grenades and fingered the pin.

A spray of gunfire came in from the roof and it wasn't any SWAT rifles. Kayaku looked up to see the Barret spraying the alley with his gun arm strafing the ground and forcing the police to retreat less they become Swiss cheese. Barret dropped to the ground still firing him.

"YO!" he greeted over the loud gunfire. Contend the police had been suppressed Kayaku rushed down the alley with William and tow.

"Why are you helping me?" Kayaku asked navigating the maze of alleys trying to find refuge in the warehouse district where maybe he could steal a car and get out of here.

"Reeves called," Barret said explaining everything.

"And the rest of your friends?" Kayaku asked.

"Them fools ain't answering their phones," Barret growled, "Funny how they don't want to talk when I got something ta say, I told Tifa though she's out here to trying to help ya."

Kayaku stopped and turned to Barret, "Take William," he said, "Get him out of her and get him to Reeves," He commanded.

"You'll need my help if you want to get out of here alive," Barret protested.

"That's my problem," Kayaku said handing William over to Barret who threw him over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes.

"I promised Reeves I'd help you," Barret said.

"You already have," Kayaku assured him, "If you can deliver this man to Reeves then you've done more than enough, but I need to disappear and that's difficult with you around."

"Fine," Barret growled, "Stubborn fool."

"GO!" Kayaku ordered taking off into the maze of allies disappearing from sight.

…..

"It looks like the police have herded him into the warehouse district," Reno explained listening closely to the police scanner they had installed into the Shinra copter.

Elena closed her cellphone, "Rufus wants this man alive," she explained pulling a case under her seat.

Cloud looked out the door to the city below. It looked like a warzone down there. Plumbs of black smoke rose to the sky from fires and even from up here he could hear the sound of sirens past the din of the rotor blades.

Elena pulled an air rifle from the case and loaded in a dart.

"Alive it is," Cloud said hefting his massive sword over his shoulder and jumping over the side into the warzone below.

"Circle us over," Elena said staring down the scope, "I want a shot at this bastard."

...

**I try to wait longer before posting but I'm writing at warp speeds. Writing action scenes I just turn out chapter after chapter and I've had a weekend full of free time to write this sword swinging gun blazing fight. So far it seems every moment has built up to this showdown but it's only the beginning. **


	22. Taken Down

Vincent looked up at Yuffie. The young ninja silently broke the lock on the window above and stealthily entered into the dark warehouse. Police helicopters and SWAT teams searched the area for the man Harima. Vincent had joined the search as well putting his heightened senses to good use tracking the man into the empty building.

Confident Yuffie was in position he drew Cerberus and blasted the lock away and threw open the sliding metal door aiming his gun as he scanned the darkness.

Gunfire greeted him from the shadows muzzle flashes illuminating the dark corner. Vincent rolled away avoiding the strafing machine gun ducking into cover behind a shipping container. As soon as the assailant stopped to reload Vincent burst from the corner his gun ablazeing.

Harima rolled behind a crate tossing a Vincent a grenade as he retreated to cover. Vincent charged the bomb and scooped it up in his golden hand tossing it behind him to detonate safely. As the bomb went off the rounded the corner of the crate Harima had taken cover behind. He leveled his gun ready to blow the assassin away only to find the space empty. A loud ping alerted him and he looked to see a tiny metal flashbang bounce on the concrete.

The stun grenade went pop and bathed the area in blinding light. Kayaku burst from his hiding place sword and pistol in hand. As he moved to attack Valentine he found the former Turks ragged cloak pulled up in front of him concealing himself in the red garment.

A burst of fire leapt from the crimson cloak as Vincent fired Cerberus through the cloak adding more holes to it. Kayaku rolled to avoid the fire deflecting a few of the rounds with his katana. The shots were wide and Valentine stumbled. Vincent had shielded his eyes from the blinding flash but the little bomb did more than blind, the loud pop defended whoever was within range and the sudden change in air pressure disoriented the victim putting them off balance. In truth Kayaku was impressed Valentine was still standing let alone firing a gun. His ears were probably ringing like hell though.

Kayaku charged serpentine towards the gunslinger. The cloak had fallen away and he knocked the gun out of his grip with his blade and brought the revolver up to chest level with Vincent.

A flash of a blade knocked the gun from his grasp and slicing his forearm open. A large shuriken flew through the air and rounded back to the young spunky ninja.

"Forget about me?" She asked throwing the weapon again.

Vincent having recovered from his disorientation attacked with his golden claw trying to slash him. Kayaku parried the strike with his katana. With his weapon gone Valentine had to rely on hand to hand combat and that was one area Kayaku was positive he could beat him at. He was half right.

Despite more extensive training in kenjutsu and martial arts Vincent was stronger. The augmentation that had allowed him to accept the Chaos WEAPON into his body gave him remarkable strength. With mako enhancements Kayaku rarely met anyone who was stronger than him. It was pretty humbling.

The blow skidded his feet back on the concrete but he managed to successfully deflect the golden claw. With ninja trained grace Kayaku hooked his angle around Vincent's leg and tripped him sending him down and making a hasty retreat.

Runes appeared on his swords glowing red as he activated the Materia in the hilt and shot a flurry of fireballs from the tip covering his escape as he leapt out a window smashing through the glass as the warehouse burned.

Vincent scooped up Cerberus and holstered it he stared through the flames. He cursed under his breath and moved to find another exit with Yuffie.

"Looks like this chumps packing some pretty heavy materia," she commented as they found a door and rushed outside.

"Yuffie," he said warningly. He was very failure with the ninja's old habits.

"I'm just saying," she defending herself, "nothing wrong with eyeing the spoils of war.

She jumped up onto the roof and saw their target running for his life down an alleyway. She tossed her shuriken at the man only to see it getting knocked out of the air by an intercepting red shuriken not unlike her own.

She turned to see the same dark red haired woman in the black suit who'd stopped them as the parking garage. The woman caught her own shuriken and looked her in the eyes.

Vincent drew Cerberus.

"No," Yuffie said to him drawing a fistful of kunai. "Go after Harima," She ordered, "I got this bitch."

Vincent nodded and leapt down and chased after the assassin.

Yuffie tossed the kunai and dived for her fallen shuriken. Cissnei deflected the small knives with her shuriken and threw. Yuffie ducked the spinning blade and charged tossing her weapon. Cissnei avoided the blade only managing to scratch her suit.

Yuffie caught her weapon as it returned to her tossed another handful of kunai at the woman. She ducked the knives and caught her weapon before throwing it again.

"We don't need to fight," The redhead said staring at Yuffie, "Believe me we're the good guys."

"Is that so?" Yuffie scoffed, "then why are you helping that assassin escape?"

"You don't understand," she said lowering her weapon, "That man your chasing Kayaku… he and I are WRO… we work for the government… we work for Reeves."

* * *

Kayaku took inventory of his remaining armaments. Apart from his sword and the materia in his he had some kunai and shuriken left. He'd dried up any remaining ammo in his submachine gun and he'd lost his revolvers during his scuffles with Valentine and the others, his shotgun was on the top floor of that parking garage when he'd taken a shot to the Kevlar by Vincent. He hadn't noticed it until now but that shot he took to the chest from Valentine's gun had shattered a few of his weapons including one of his Jericho pistols. Meaning he had just the one 9mm left along with several magazines of ammunition.

He doubted it'd be enough to handle Valentine and the fully armored SWAT teams on his trail.

He still had his sword though, meaning he still had his materia. He didn't like using materia though. It made him powerful but it felt like a crutch, too many people came to rely on it so he tried to use it sparingly and keep his skills at their peak. But right now he needed everything he had so the kid gloves were coming off.

He moved from his hiding spot and moved into an alley hearing the rotor blades of helicopters overhead.

The sound of footsteps caught his attention and he looked up to see Cloud Strife descending from the roofs above massive sword in hand. So much for the delivery he thought as he fired the pistol at the descending ex-SOLDIER.

Cloud blocked and deflected the rounds with his sword touching ground he swung the massive blade down. Kayaku side stepped the swing and spun around with his sword. For a delivery boy Cloud was exceptionally skilled and agile with the oversized blade. He brought the heavy sword back up and parried the blow making a mighty swing at him that cut straight into the wall. Kayaku jumped up and landed atop the wide flat of the blade.

With his weapon buried in the wall he was weaponless. Kayaku pressed the hot barrel of his pistol against his head. But Cloud was quick reaching his hand out and grabbing the gun and twisting it out of his grasp.

With the pistol gone Kayaku leapt into the air again activating the fire materia in his sword and blasting the man with a barrage of fireballs. The ground below burned and Cloud leapt from the embers sword in hand his hand and clothes only slightly singed from the flames.

Their swords met clashing against one another as they flew through their air. Kayaku was impressed.

As they landed apart several gunshots caught his attention. Bullets whizzed by him and he looked to see Vincent Valentine aiming his gun at him.

"Surrender," Cloud said pointing the tip of his sword at him

"Not an option," Kayaku said throwing a kunai in Vincent's direction. The gunslinger dodged and fired only to have the bullets deflected on Kayaku's sword. Jumping again in the air he charged his sword with fire and shot flames onto the roof below. The fireballs stuck an old water tower supported by wooden legs. The wooden supports splintered apart and the tower fell spilling gallons upon gallons of water onto the roof extinguishing any remaining flames and almost knocking Cloud and Vincent off their feet. Kayaku landed on the concrete wall lining the roof stabbing the end of his sword into the water. Blue runes marked the blade and lighting struck. Azure electrical arc traveled through the water and shocked Cloud and Vincent. They screamed in pain as their bodies convulsed violently arcs of lighting shocked them. Kayaku pulled the sword out of the water before the spell could finish not wanting to electrocute them to death. He breathed heavily from the exhausting fight. They weren't out from the shock but they couldn't stand stunned from the high voltage. It was lucky for him this water tower was here, he doubted his ability to take either Valentine or Strife in a one on one fight let alone both at once.

Hoping the fighting had temporally ended he shortened his katana back into a tanto knife and returned it to his scabbard.

A sharp pain shot though his neck and he clutched at his throat pulling out a tiny dart from an air rifle. He cursed as he felt the drugs begin to coarse through his veins. He looked up to see a massive Black Hawk helicopter descend onto the roof in front of him a blond haired woman in a blue Turk uniform held the rifle. His vision blurred as he looked at the red Shinra logo painted on the side. The woman fired another dart and the world before him went black.

* * *

**And thus ends the big showdown with Elena being the one to take Kayaku down. But what will the Turks do with him? What is the story being Kayaku and Cissnei working for the WRO and Reeves? What purpose dose Rufus have for wanting the former Turk alive? How will everyone react to knowing the truth about Kayaku and his past? Act I is drawing to a close but with it will come a whole new beginning. Next chapter the truth comes into the light.**


	23. The truth comes out

_Reeves rapped his knuckles against the trailer door._

_"Do you think he's home?" Cissnei asked from behind him brushing a lock of dark red hair behind her ear._

_"He's here," Reeves said confidently pounding on the door of the dingy trailer home parked in the middle of the dusty desert of Corel Prison. The dismal community of lowlifes kicked out of the Golden Saucer was morose and unwelcoming. Probably why he chose it as his place to live._

_The door cracked open and a grey eyed man with long coppery hair looked him in the eye. Kayaku looked worse for wear, he'd grown an unkempt beard and his once well maintained hair was wild and dirty. He looked like he hadn't showered in couple of weeks._

_The glazed look his eye also told him he hadn't been sleeping very well either. It took him a second to recognize Reeves._

_"Go away!" he said slamming the door in his face._

_"I just want to talk," Reeves said through the door, "I've been looking all over for you."_

_"Well you wasted your own time," Kayaku said._

_"I have a job for you," Reeves said, "Just hear me out."_

_Kayaku opened the door again this time Reeves could clearly see he was carrying one of this revolvers. Reeves wasn't too worried about that._

_"Are you going to let me in?" Reeves asked._

_"I don't know," Kayaku said, "part of me want's too."_

_"And the other part?" Reeves asked._

_"The other part wants to put a round in your heart," he answered._

_Reeves laughed, "That seems appropriate," he said, "how about I come in and we have a little chat… if you don't like what you hear then you can shoot me," he joked._

_Kayaku retreated back into his shoddy trailer leaving the door open for Reeves. He walked inside and took a seat in front of the former Turk._

_"I want you to join the WRO," Reeves said putting his proposal on the table._

_"If you haven't noticed I'm in prison," Kayaku said._

_Reeves chuckled, "I can see that, the Gold Saucer caught you trying to fix the Chocobo races… it seems like a pretty minor crime for a former Turk and master ninja. Let's cut the crap Kayaku if you really wanted to cheat in the races you would have and you wouldn't have gotten caught and you certainly wouldn't have gotten thrown in here so easily. You want to be here."_

_"I deserve to be here," Kayaku said, "I deserve much worse."_

_"Kayaku…" Reeves said tentatively looking him in his grey eyes, "you're a soldier… you were fighting a war."_

_"NO!" Kayaku shouted, "DON'T YOU DARE MAKE EXCUSES FOR ME!" He spat, "THAT WASN'T WAR AND I'M NOT A SOLDIER I'M A MONSTER!"_

_"You were following orders," Reeves said keeping his tone even, "You were protecting your county."_

_"That doesn't make it alright," Kayaku growled, "I killed innocent people… I killed my own family my parents and even my own little sister… and for what? Orders? Those orders never came! The people who I was supposed to kill slipped through my fingers… all those deaths all those lives I took was for nothing. My life… my families lives my brothers and everyone else's deaths were MEANINGLESS! I wanted to save my county… but it's too late for that."_

_"Your county still needs you," Reeves said, "I need you… and you're not helping either of us staying here in your self-imposed exile. The WRO has enemies and you have skills I can use."_

_"So you want me to go back to killing people?" Kayaku asked, "Go back to all the wet work and lying and stealing and extortion."_

_"I'm not saying it'll be glamorous," Reeves said, "you know more than anyone could how gritty this line of work is… but I promise you Kayaku the work you'll be doing will be good and you'll be helping people even if you have to hurt some. You may think you're a monster but you can be a monster with a purpose… you can find redemption."_

_Kayaku sighed, "I'm going to need some gear," he said scratching his beard, "and a shave… when's my first mission?"_

_….._

The air of the 7th Heaven bar was filled with an awkward silence.

"Shit," Barret said scratching his head trying to break the tension.

"That's an interesting story Reeves," Cloud said standing up from his chair looking at his friend intently. "But that doesn't explain why you didn't tell us about your little secret agent causing trouble around town."

Reeves sighed, "I'm sorry for all the trouble," he said hands folded on the table in front of him, "But I don't need to inform you every time the WRO is running a covert operation in Edge," he said simply, "Kayaku was sent here to investigate and apprehend individuals responsible for the theft of several abandoned Shinra labs and discover who they were working for."

"Like that little girl?" Cloud asked looking over to the brown haired clone sitting on Tifa's lap asleep against her shoulder as his wife doted on the little clone.

"Honestly we feared XCP001 was a biological weapon," Reeves explained, "but yes… the labs were completely swept clean but from what Kayaku learned that little girl was the most important thing on their list."

"Why?" Tifa asked stroking the girl's hair. "What could they hope to use her for?"

"I don't know," Reeves admitted, "That's what we're hoping to find out, luckily for us Barret managed to get our friend Mr. William into WRO custody."

"Yeah but those damn Turks still got Harima… I mean Kayaku. I knew I should've gone with him and prevented this from happening… I could've explained this to ya all if you'd have just answered your damn phones."

"You make it sound like a bad thing that that psycho's in chains," Cloud said still feeling the after effects of having lighting coursing through his body.

"He's one of us," Barret growled, "you heard Reeves after the war he fought against Shinra… he supplied AVALANCH with weapons and equipment to blow up that reactor, he's our ally."

"You left out the part where he murdered innocent people Barret… Including his own family. Are you really going to defend someone like that Barret?"

"He didn't close to do those things," Barret growled, "It was Shinra… it's always them.

The argument halted when a loud sob caught their attention. Everyone turned their heads to see the young ninja crying.

Away in the corner a flood of memories assaulted the Yuffie's mind. Voices, words, images filled her mind's eye. A copper haired teenager throwing shuriken at a tree stump, a young man sent off on a mission with his brothers, a boy sent off to be a hero for his country.

She felt a gloved hand touch her shoulder and looked back to see Vincent. "What's wrong?" he asked her. She noticed how everyone in the bar was now staring at her. Embarrassed she wiped the moisture from her eyes.

She balled her fists and looked away from everyone. "Shinra isn't solely to blame for this," she told Barret, "Wutai's just as responsible."

"Yuffie," Barret said, "I… I didn't mean to… this isn't your fault."

"NO!" she yelled, "It's my countries and my father's fault… we sent children to off to do our dirty work, made boys even younger than when you first met me to assassinate the leaders of Shinra and kill anyone who got in their way. If their monsters then their monsters we created."

"Yuffie" Cloud said stepping closer to the ninja, "This man did-."

"Exactly what he was trained to do," Yuffie said her voice growing weary as more tears forced their way through her eyelids. "Ninja's are trained to do anything and everything to succeed their mission, to cheat, lie, steal and kill. We were taught that our emotions were to be set aside… that personal feelings and emotions had to be numbed in order to do what was necessary to achieve our goals. That innocent lives mean nothing compared to our missions. AND I WANTED TO TEACH PEOPLE THAT! IT'S NO WONDER NO PARENT WANTED THEIR CHILDREN TO LEARN NINJUTSU. WHO WOULD WANT THEIR CHILD TO BECOME A HEARTLESS MONSTER LIKE THAT?"

"Yuffie," Vincent said more forcefully gripping both her shoulders trying to calm her down, "This is not your fault."

She looked away avoiding his crimson gaze. "I knew him," she said lowering her voice, "I didn't think about it until Reeves mentioned the Sasori clan but I knew him… I knew about his mission… his brothers and what he was doing… and you know what I did? I wished him luck and told him to keep practicing with his shuriken. I thought it was so cool that someone so young and talented was heading off on a secret mission to protect our county. I didn't think about how this hurt him… No one did… no ever one dose. And while he shed blood and lived in the shadows I stayed home in an ivory tower thinking about how cool it was people like him were off fighting a war."

"Yuffie," Vincent said making her gaze into his eyes, "I don't know what to say," he told her, "we can't change the past… but the present is ours to shape… so let's shape it. Because that man is still alive and he needs our help."

….

Cold steel chains hung from the ceiling shackled to Kayaku's arms and neck keeping him well in place. The dark room was all he could see here suspended by the chains. He'd woken in here and so far he hadn't seen anyone, the place was devoid of light and he'd lost all sense of time here. The cold draft chilled his body that had been stripped of all his weapons and clothes save for his boxers. His head hurt from the drugs and he felt dehydrated.

A door opened and white rays of light peeked in blinding him. Two silhouettes approached and he squinted his eyes to adjust to the sudden light.

"So it is you," a familiar voice said.

Kayaku lifted his head and saw the blond hair and white suit complete with raincoat. "Mr. President," he growled greeting Rufus Shinra. Rufus Shinra was supposed to be dead.

"As the saying goes it seems rumors of your demise have been greatly exaggerated," he said smiling.

With a sudden burst of speed Kayaku launched himself across the room at the former President of Shinra. Kayaku stopped inches short of him making the man jump back in fear. The steel chains kept him back at an arm's length.

"I guess I'll just have to kill you myself!" he spat baring his teeth like an animal at the man determined to spill his blood.


	24. Deathwish

Rufus smirked as Reno struck the prisoner across the face with his steel baton. Kayaku fell back bleeding from the mouth. "I'm afraid you're in no position to be killing anyone," he said watching the former Turk spit blood on the ground along with a tooth fragment.

"I've escaped prisons before," Kayaku said blood dripping viscously from his lips.

"I doubt you'll live long enough to escape," Rufus said, "What is XCP001?" he asked, "and who are you working for? Who hired you to rob those labs?"

Kayaku smirked, "You know Mr. President," he growled, "Telling the person your interrogating he's going to die once you extract the answers is a very ineffective way to get what you want." He explained, "You know what the most effective tool is in any interrogation Mr. President? It's hope. Hope to see the next day. Hope to see their friends and families again. Hope is what makes them crack… because if there is even the smallest chance that surrendering can give them what they hope for they just might give it to you. I don't have hope… not for a very long time now… good luck making me sing Shinra because the only hope I have now is piercing a blade through your heart!"

"We'll see about that," Rufus spat turning on his heels and storming out of the building his white raincoat flowing behind him.

Reno smiled wickedly at him moving over to the winch where the chain was attached cranking it to raise Kayaku up by his arm.

"You're leaving this monkey to get answers?" Kayaku called after Rufus, "I hope you got a good deal on this warehouse Shinra because I'm not talking anytime soon.''

"We'll see about that," Reno smirked dropping his baton on the ground and reaching into his tattered jacket.

"Like it?" he asked as he pulled out Kayaku's tanto blade letting the light catch the edge shining it into his eyes blinding him. "Because I do," he mocked, "nice fine razor edge, and durable too, the eggheads in the Shinra R&D department cook this little bad boy up for you?" he asked, "because this knife is awesome, let me guess. Nanotech? That's how you can turn this titanium knife into that sword you use? How do you do that? Is there a switch you press or what?"

"Put it in my hand and I'll demonstrate," Kayaku hissed annoyed at the Turks rambling. That weapon was more than a piece of Shinra Tech, it'd been a family heirloom passed down by his farther himself. The lab technicians had augmented the blade, melted it down and bonded titanium nanobots into the weapon able to extend and shorten the steel without weakening the blade. It was amazing and even the black metal scabbard could extend itself to fit whatever size the blade was. It was almost a shame to lose all the technological marvels Shinra had once provided.

"You must really think I'm stupid huh?" Reno chuckled.

"Well I'm not the one asking my enemy how to use a fancy new weapon." Kayaku responded.

"That's alright," Reno said casually inspecting the perfect edge, "swords aren't really my thing anyways but it's still a good knife its sharp enough to shave with."

"Be sure you don't slit your throat," Kayaku warned, "all it takes is a little slip, by the time you realized you cut yourself you'd have lost a gallon of blood."

"Is that so?" Reno said pressing the tip against his toned chest dragging the blade across his skin cutting him. The razor sharp edge didn't hurt as first but soon the cut stung and he bit his lips in pain."

Reno smirked smugly looking at the blood drip off the knife and down his chest. "Now let's get to the questions," he said, "What's the purpose behind XCP001?"

"Well I suppose there is no harm telling you I don't know," Kayaku growled, "You need to learn how to ask the right questions."

"Don't feed me that shit," Reno growled striking him on the head with the blades pommel. "We intercepted the box Kayaku we know there was a little clone inside. Who gives a box that much attention and doesn't bother to know what's inside. What's the girl for why do you need her?"

"I don't know," he growled head spinning from the blow. It was sent spinning again when Reno struck him once more.

"Then who wants her? Who are you working for and who were those men you killed!?"

"That's classified," Kayaku answered again earning a flurry of punches from the Turk.

Reno touched the blade to his chest again and activated the lighting materia shocking him, "Don't think this is my first time beating answers out of an enemy," he said as Kayaku's body convulsed violently as the electricity coursed through his body. "I don't expect you to talk… not right away… you act tough right now, everyone acts tough. You start off with cracking jokes and denying answers, it feels good and helps you through the pain. After a while you'll start losing your cool and the jokes will stop, then you'll start to lie… you'll blab out fib after fib and well of course check our sources and discover you're lying. After a while you'll get tired of lying and you'll be too exhausted to concoct any elaborate fabrications. And then sooner or later hope or no hope. You're like me… a Turk so my guess is it'll take a long time to crack you open since you're trained to resist interrogation but it'll eventually work it always does. The time will come where the one thing you want more than anything else is to die." Kayaku removed the blade and let Kayaku fall limp his muscles twitching from the shock.

Kayaku's bloody lips moved as he mumbled something, Reno leaned in close. "What was that?" he asked curiously touching the blade to him again ready to shock him with another dose of electricity. Materia like this definitely saved him money on car batteries and jumper cables.

Kayaku knocked his forehead against Reno's face, his nose broke with a wet crunch and he fell back onto the floor clutching his bloody face in agony.

"I said I already want to die!" Kayaku hissed spitting blood in Reno's face, "But I can't die yet… not like this… not on these terms… I still have a mission I'm going to kill your boss Reno I'm going to cut out his fucking heart."

Reno ran for the door clutching his broken noose dripping blood everywhere, "Rude!" he cried, "Rude get the car I need to see a doctor for my fucking nose goddamn it."

Kayaku smirked as he watched the Turk run away, "Your move Shinra," he whispered, "Your move."

….

Yuffie fumbled with the lockpicks. The pins fell into place and the lock yielded. People really had too much faith in padlocks. They were easy to pick and if you lacked the finesse to do that you could always use a pair of bolt cutters to force your way in. She thought the Turks would no better than to trust shoddy cheap locks on their back alley prison. But then again a personalized magnetic electric key card reader would look awfully suspicious in a neighborhood like this. She pulled off the lock and slid the steel door open letting the sunlight flood in. It seemed that agent Reeves was right because there he was hanging by a pair on chains in a small pool of blood.

She sprinted inside towards him Conformer in hand striking the chains and cutting him down in a flash of sparks. She caught his body as it fell slumping limply onto her. She ignored the blood and looked at him. He was weak but alive and starting to wake up.

"Kayaku," she said, "It's me Kayaku… it's Yuffie I'm going to get you out of here."

"Yuffie?" he breathed looking at her though half lidded eyes. She helped him stand and walk, "How'd you find me?" he asked leaning on him slowly finding his strength.

"We never lost you," Yuffie explained, "or as least she didn't."

Kayaku looked up to see Cissnei standing guard at the door pistol in hand. "Where were you?" He asked the redhead.

"Sorry," Cissnei said, "your tracking chip when out, had to do some detective work."

That made sense, Reno had shocked him with over ten thousand volts, must have overloaded the tiny chip embedded into his skin. Oh well it hardly matters right now, he was out and he had a mission. Cissnei and Yuffie led him to a car and helped him into the back of the sedan. "We're taking you to a hospital," Yuffie said, "Your safe now."

"Yeah Hospital," Kayaku said an evil smile crossing his face. A particular red haired Turk would be getting his nose fixed right about now. He should pay him a visit while he was there.


	25. Hospital Visit

Kayaku pulled on the shirt and pants Cissnei had given him, the simple pair of jeans and white t-shirt was a little too big for him but I'd have to do. He wouldn't accomplish much running around half naked. "Where's my guns?" He asked tightening the cheap leather belt around his waist to keep the jeans on.

"Don't worry about that now," Cissnei said, "the missions over Reeves's interrogating Williams now and he explained everything to everyone here."

"Everything?" Kayaku asked looking at Yuffie.

The young girl directed her vision towards the dashboard, "Yeah… everything," she sighed. She reached into the glove compartment and pulled out one of his revolvers. "I have this one, the other was lost in the warehouse fire," she explained.

"Give it to me," Kayaku demanded tonguing his chipped tooth.

"Later," Yuffie said, "you need to go to the hospital first, you don't need a gun right now."

Kayaku sighed leaning forward to inspect himself in the rearview mirror inspecting the damage. In truth he really didn't need a doctor. Reno hadn't done anything that couldn't be fixed with a few stitches and some disinfectant.

But Reno was getting his nose fixed and Kayaku really needed to have another heart to heart with the bastard.

He didn't say anything as they drove. Yuffie returned the gun to the glove compartment as they continued their drive to the hospital.

After finding a place to park Yuffie and Cissnei escorted him into the lobby. He had hoped to lift Cissnei's car keys off of her but with the fellow ninja Yuffie keeping an eye on him picking her pockets seemed out of the question. Not to mention the fellow ex-Turk was clearly on her guard. It was nice to know the years away from Shinra hadn't rusted her skills at all.

Kayaku was strong enough now to walk on his own. After checking in with the receptionist he waited in the room with Yuffie and Cissnei until he was admitted inside leaving the two girls to wait in the lobby for his return.

"So what happened to you?" the doctor asked as he stepped inside the cozy windowless room.

"Just a bad day," Kayaku said grabbing the man from behind and put him into a sleeper hold choking him until he lost consciousness. Kayaku gently set the doctor down and stripped off his white coat donning it and taking whatever other useful items he could find on the man which was very little. He had no real need for a stethoscope except to help make his disguise a little more convincing. And for now a simple ballpoint would have to serve as his one and only weapon.

He exited the small room making sure to lock it behind him. It was shocking how much people would ignore someone as long as they had the proper clothing on. No one seemed to notice at all when he found a tiny office and began typing away at a computer checking the hospital's logs. He knew the Turk wouldn't register himself under his real name but he was easily able to narrow the search down by simply looking for broken noses making the list of hundreds turn to a list of five. Then he just needed to read down the profiles for a man in his late twenty's with red hair. It wasn't very difficult it seemed he'd registered himself under the alias of Allen Campbell and he was in room 313 awaiting care.

Exiting the office he made to the elevator and pressed for the third floor. He moved through the hallways until he found 313.

He opened the door and walked inside casually like a doctor calmly closing the door behind him and locking it.

Reno was sitting on the mattress staring out the open window with a bloody piece of gauze pressed up against his nose.

"Oh good doc," he said his voice strange and distorted from the crushed nasal passages. "I need some more gauze the bleeding isn't stopping and this one's completely soaked…," Reno's head turned and spotted him, his eyes went wide with disbelief, "You!" he exclaimed dropping the gauze and reaching into his jacket for his gun.

Kayaku lunged and grabbed the gun from his hands twisting it from his grasp and pulling it away by the barrel. The gun had been a faint as Reno unsheathed Kayaku's knife drawing the blade out and swiping at him. Kayaku ducked the slash that could have easily decapitated him and grabbed for Reno's wrist holding his arm above his head as he struck him across the face with the butt of the pistol and twisted his arm around turning him away as he snapped his arm. Reno cried in pain and the blade dropped from his hand as he shoved him forward smashing his face against the wall and knocking him out. Blood smeared the wallpaper as he fell down limp his already broken nose bleeding even more profusely having been smashed a second time.

Kayaku grabbed his blade and the scabbard in Reno's jacket reclaiming his family's weapon and tucking it safely under his stolen doctor's jacket and fumbling through the contents of his pockets retreating his real target his cell phone. He checked the addresses and found Rufus's number, if he had his number he could track his phone and if he could track Rufus's phone he could track him. He'd have to work fast however. Once Shinra got word Reno had been taken down he'd try to skip town. Kayaku would have to make sure he saw the president off.

But first he needed to dispose of a bad apple.

Kayaku pulled back the slide of the pistol and checked there was a round loaded in the chamber. Content there was one in the pipe he flicked the safety off and grabbed Reno by the hair pulling him up and raising the gun.

The door burst open showering the room in splinters as the imposing figure of Rude charged in fists clenched and ready to fight.

Kayaku dropped Reno and aimed the gun at Rude firing point blank. The rounds hit him center mass but he didn't stop. He undoubtedly had a bulletproof vest under his suit. Kayaku ducked a right hook but managed to take a punch straight in the gut knocking him back. Kayaku let himself fall limp against Rude feigning weakness. The bluff worked as he grabbed his shoulders. Kayaku grabbed the ballpoint pen in his pocket and stabbed it into Rude's side. He yelled as the writing implement pierced him. Kayaku released himself from his grip and jumped back out the window shattering the glass and firing the gun hitting one of Rude's arms as he fell to the earth below. Kayaku rolled as he hit the ground making the fall easier. Easier, not painless. He hit the ground and hard and grinded against the broken glass. If his body hadn't been augmented with mako infusion he'd be in an even bigger world of hurt. If he was any normal person he'd probably be dead. He stood up and looked to the window where Rude appeared in his good hand he held his pistol firing one handed down at him. Kayaku sprinted for the parking lot firing back at the Turk emptying the pistol. Rude fell back and Kayaku suspected he nicked his leg. He reloaded the pistol with the one extra magazine he had and tucked the tiny Glock 26 into his pocket and rushed to the parking lot.

He drew the pistol again and slammed the guns butt against the driver window of Cissnei's car shattering it. He cleared the glass away and reached unlocking the door.

He'd always told Cissnei that she needed a more modern car and he hoped with this was over she'd start taking this advice to heart. Older vehicles like this were much easier to hijack. He pulled out his tanto knife and stabbed it into the steering column forcing it open and turning the ignition starting the car. He drove away making sure to be hasty as he left the hospital in his review mirror. He didn't want to stick around when the police arrived. As soon as he was confident he was clear and no one was following him he reached over and opened the glove compartment retrieving his revolver. So far he had a Glock 9mm a 357 revolver and his sword and the materia inside. It was certainly a good start but he'd need much more if he planned on taking down Rufus Shinra.

Squirrels store acorns for winter and spies hoard guns and weapons for similar situations. And metaphorically speaking it was snowing like hell right now. Kayaku kept a rented storage unit properly supplied on the east end of town. He pulled up next to his unit and popped the trunk. Stepping out he punched in the key code on the lock and pulled the door up. He had everything he could possibly need here. Everything from assault rifles to rocket launchers he had it. He was going to need it. He had the necessary equipment for tracking Rufus's cellphone. But first thing first he needed a change of clothes. A bloody pair of jeans and t-shirt complete with doctor's coat were hardly appropriate for what he had in mind. Closing the door behind him he clicked on a light and walked to the back of the unit where a charcoal grey suit waited for him with matching a fedora hat and raincoat.

He had to the tools. He had the weapons. The only thing that was left was Shinra. Sixteen years, he'd wasted sixteen years to end this man. There was no more secrets, no more orders or secret identities. He was going to kill him, and anyone who got in his way would die.


	26. Into the Ruins

Rufus strode down the long hallway towards the elevator with Elena and Tsung. "Reno and Rude are staying in the hospital," Tsung reported pocketing his cellphone. "Rude's been stabbed in the side with a pen and took a bullet to both and arm and a leg. Reno's nose is broken along with his arm and he has a concussion, they're going to be staying in the hospital for a while."

"Well I suppose they were lucky to be at the hospital before that bastard put them in it," Rufus commented stepping into the elevator. "Do we have any leads on his location?" he asked pressing the button for the roof.

"He disappeared," Elena reported.

"I figured that but what interests me is how he escaped," Rufus growled, "Reno and Rufus were supposed to watch him, why the hell where they at the hospital before he shot them?"

"No clue," Elena sighed, "But I'll do whatever I can to find this man," she explained, "I'm going to contact Cloud Strife and see if he'll help us apprehend us again."

"Good thinking," Rufus said stepping out onto the roof where his helicopter was waiting for him rotors already spinning as Tsung jogged forward to open the door for him. It wasn't the old Shinra Blackhawk made for functionality but a simple civilian chopper made for rich executives and CEO's who wished to travel in opulence and avoid traffic as they were picked up from there five star hotels and transported to their private jets or simply carried to a closer location. In this case the small inconspicuous aircraft would fly him out of the city and take him to Junon were he'd be safe. Tsung had recommended using the small unarmored civilian aircraft fearing the Shinra armored Blackhawk would attract unwanted attention in the sky.

"One thing," Rufus said turning to Elena. "This man managed to escape us and put two of my Turks in the hospital, that's no easy feat even for a former Turk such as himself. And now he's coming after me, take him alive if you wish but my tolerance for him is thin, kill him if you must."

"Yes sir," Elena said nodding, "It will be done."

"Let's go sir," Tseng said shuffling him into the copter and climbing into the pilot's seat. The black haired Turk looked at Elena and gave her an approving nod. Rufus watched as Elena nodded back and turned on her hears and walked back into the hotel ready to get to work as the copter ascended into the air. Rufus honestly felt sorry for the poor girl. After years of working alongside the man she had only now come to learn that Tsung had only ever come to love the Cetra girl Aerith, after her death his only other love had been for the job.

In the end Rufus supposed it was for the best. Tsung was his best agent and he needed him as focused as possible. They all needed to be focused. Apart from terrorists like Kayaku robbing abandoned Shinra labs for weapons and scattered Deepground remnants causing mischief and mayhem they had to also worry about Reeve's upcoming election.

Reeves had learned years ago that he was the one funding the WRO donating sizeable quantities of his vast fortune single handedly making sure the World Regenesis Organization stayed afloat in these troubled times. Despite not longer having a company to profit from Rufus had managed to maintain his wealth very well with well placed clever investments that kept him rich and able to continue his sizeable anonymous donations to the WRO. He'd even offered to help fund Reeve's reelection campaign but he'd turned him down hoping to win the fair old fashioned way.

Rufus couldn't have any of that.

As far as Rufus was concerned Reeves _was _the WRO. Without him and his philanthropic disposition the organization would have gone under within its first year or turned corrupt. That was why Rufus refused to sit on the sidelines during this election. He was determined to make sure Reeves stayed in his position of power and never left. He needed to end this business with the terrorist Kayaku and work on making sure Reeves had the voters on his side. If worst came to worst Rufus could threaten or assassinate his political opponents free of charge.

It was nasty, gruesome and unpleasant business but it beat risky some incompetent or greedy bureaucrat having the fate of the world in the palm of his hand.

Rufus looked out the window as they began to move over the scarred ruins of Midgar. No as wrong or immoral as it was he had to keep Reeves where he was. This was all he could do to make up for everything. Chances where he'd never live to see the ruins of Midgar rust and fade away reclaimed by the planet he and that accursed city had harmed so much. Again it was just as well. The ruins were a constant bitter reminder of the black sins he'd committed. Every death, every life lost in that once magnificent city was on his hands. He hadn't directly caused the Meteor to fall but he and his damned farther had set forward the motions and did little to slow them. And the millions who perished in Midgar was simply the tip of the iceberg.

He needed to atone for it all. He didn't know if it was possible to atone for everything he'd done. He couldn't count the atrocities he'd committed or simply permitted to happen under his nose. But forgiveness hardly mattered right now, he'd taken countless lives and now he needed to help save whatever lives were left. A conscious was a strange thing to grow after so many years of evil. But as some would say better late than never. He'd save the world and answer for his sins. If there was a Hell he was definitely destined to burn there next to his foolish father. In these recent years he'd grown accustomed to that thought dying in repentance and spending eternity in punishment. It was what he deserved no more no less, burning in a deep flaming pit was as good an afterlife as he could hope to get. He sighed and leaned back in the comfortable leather seat closing his eyes thinking about fire.

…

A yellow flame ignited with a flash of sparks as Kayaku clicked the lighter and lit his cigarette. Shinra was on a chopper heading out of the city. He could tell with how the cellphone signal was moving. He'd parked Cissnei's car on the edge of town and waited.

Waiting

It was one of the hardest things about this line of work. He was trained to be patient and wait for opportunities to present themselves, to keep a level head and not act hastily. But after so many times checking your gun becomes pointless and you become anxious. It was one of several reasons he took up smoking. The main reason was it gave him the opportunity to stand around in smoking sections without drawing attention to himself.

His ears picked up the sound of rotor blades in the distance and getting closer. He opened the trunk and opened the dense case he'd stored inside. He pulled out exactly what situations like this called for. He removed the long metal tube from the box and shouldered the weapon. Many would call him paranoid for storing a shoulder launched surface to air missile. Even some of the most diehard spies didn't keep Stinger missile launchers in their emergency weapons stores. It was anything but covert and manageable but in Kayaku's current case his paranoia had served him well.

He sighed the weapon making sure it's fire and forget systems were working perfectly folding out the IFF antenna and glairing down the scope. He only had one shot and he had no intention of missing.

The helicopter came into sight. A small fast civilian model unarmored and unfitted with antimissile defense systems. Decoy chaff wouldn't be a problem today.

He brought the chopper into his sights and waited for the lock on. His heart was thundering in his head, this type of killing wasn't as personal or intimate as he'd have liked it to be with Rufus Shinra but it didn't matter. The missile acquired its lock and Kayaku fired. The rocket sprung forward and streaked across the sky trailing smoke as it homed in on the defenseless aircraft. The chopper swerved trying to evade the deadly missile but without any countermeasures it was hopeless to completely avoid the rocket.

The pilot had managed to avoid a direct hit as the missile detonating exploding in a flash and blowing away the chopper's tail rotor sending it into a spin. The wounded bird fell from the heavens despite the futile attempts from the pilot to control the damaged chopper plummeting towards earth. The chopper disappeared as it fell into the ruins of Midgar. Kayaku placed the launcher back into the trunk and got into the car starting it up. Chances were Rufus was dead but he needed to confirm the kill and be sure. He needed to see the body, if there was no body then he wasn't dead.

And he needed to be sure he was dead.

Kayaku started up the car and stepped on the gas rushing off towards the ruins of Midgar. If Rufus was alive or dead Kayaku couldn't think of a better place for this all to end.


	27. Ultimatum

The door to the 7th Heaven bar opened and Elena found herself staring at the President of the WRO Reeve Tuesti who closed his phone the moment she walked in.

"Reeve," she greeted and looked at Cloud who was standing in the corner with his sword strapped to his belt along with Vincent Valentine who's gun was resting securely in its holster. "I need your guy's help," she said.

"Looking for Kayaku?" Cloud guessed making her raise an eyebrow.

"How'd you know?" she asked.

"Because we're the ones who freed him," Cloud said.

"WHAT!" she exclaimed, "WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT?!"

"Because Kayaku works for me," Reeve said, "you captured one of my agents investigating the raided Shinra labs. Rufus wasn't picking up his phone so I sent Cissnei and Yuffie to retrieve him."

Elena felt a sinking feeling in her stomach. "Where is he now?" she demanded.

"We don't know," Reeve said, "apparently he assaulted your friends at the hospital and took off without either of them. His tracking chip was fried so we can't locate him, we have no idea where he's heading or his intention of escaping from the hospital."

Elena cursed, "I do," she said, "He spoke to Rufus," she explained, "He threatened… promised to kill him."

Reeve's eyes widened, "He saw Rufus?" he said seriously, "He knows he's alive?"

Elena nodded when her cellphone beeped. It wasn't just the usually ring she was accustomed to hearing but a warning signal she rarely heard. The Turk's phones were programmed to send distress signals to each other in the event of an emergency and for whatever reason couldn't call. The signal not only alerted every one of the danger but also transmitted the phone's coordinates. Rufus's phone was the one transmitting and from the screen she could see the tiny red dot positioning him right in the middle of the Midgar ruins.

"He's in trouble," she said. "Kayaku must have found him somehow."

"Shit," Reeve cursed, "Were is he?"

"The Midgar ruins," she said rushing out the door with Cloud and Vincent Reeve followed close behind, "Assuming he's still alive that is."

"We have to stop this," Reeve said as he climbed into Elena's car, "Take us there right now," he ordered, "I might be the only one who can stop him."

Vincent looked over from the back seat of the car, "Are you sure Reeve?" he asked, "Are you positive you can stop this man?"

"No," Reeve confessed, "Shinra destroyed everything Kayaku held dear to him, his county his family his very soul was destroyed serving them in the interest of destroying them. He never received his orders to enact his justice. But that was over sixteen years ago Vincent, I think orders went out the window a long time ago. I fear no one can convince him to spare Rufus after everything that's happened."

"Then we'll drop him," Elena said stomping on the gas pedal, "put a bullet through his heart the moment I see him."

"No," Reeve said, "This is my responsibility," he said, "I should have told him a long time ago that Rufus was still alive and in hiding, I should have explained that it was him funding the WRO from the very beginning and convinced him to bury the hatchet."

"So what are you going to do then?" Cloud asked from behind the passenger seat his sword stored in the trunk.

"Talk to him," Reeve said reaching for his cellphone to contact Cissnei and Yuffie, "try to make him understand," he explained dialing in the number, "It's all I can do."

"And if it doesn't work?" Elena asked swearing through traffic and running several dozen red lights.

"Then Kayaku will bury that hatchet in Rufus's skull."

* * *

"Sir?"

Rufus's head was throbbing. The crash had knocked him out temporarily and he was waking up to a throbbing headache. "Sir?" He heard Tsung say, "Sir?!" he yelled jogging him awake. He looked up to see Tsung looking at him from the cockpit of the helicopter. Blood dripped down his forehead from a massive gash. And as his vision cleared Rufus could see that a little cut was the least of Tsung's worries. The front end of the chopper had slammed into the ruins of an old building crushing the cockpit around him crushing his legs and body in a twisted metal coffin. His arms were and legs were pinned by the crumpled front end.

"Shit," Rufus cursed, "Who'd have thought he'd be packing a surface to air missile?"

"Don't worry about that right now," Tsung said, "just get out of here," he wheezed, the crushed chopper was probably crushing his lungs making it difficult to breathe, "that man will be coming… to confirm the kill, you need to be gone by the time he arrives."

Rufus didn't feel like leaving Tsung behind but with the chopper wrapped around him there was no hope of taking him with him. If he could get a rescue team here they could cut the aluminum body of the copter off of him with the so called Jaws of Life. But by the time anyone would arrive with help Kayaku would likely have already killed him.

Rufus reached into his pocket for his cellphone and hit the emergency signal. Elena's phone would be going off along with Reno's and Rude's. The lack of beeping from Tsung's phone told him it'd been destroyed in the crash.

Help would be arriving fast but he wouldn't be the one getting saved. He dropped the phone on the floor of the copter and pulled his gun from his shoulder holster and moved to the window. He tried opening the door but the latch was broken.

He shot out the window and climbed cutting himself on the glass and jagged edges. He ignored the pain and got to his feet. "Help is on its way," he said, "just hang on."

Rufus took off down the street heading for somewhere… anywhere that was safe. He needed sanctuary.

…..

Kayaku stopped the car and opened the door drawing his revolver and stepping towards the crashed chopper. He stepped inside the ruined building and looked into the wreck. The Turk Tsung was crushed in the cockpit. Kayaku wasn't sure if he was dead or not but he wasn't his concern right now. Rufus was gone meaning and he'd left his phone in the chopper with some kind of emergency beacon transmitting his location. Meaning the phone was no longer a viable means of tracking Rufus. He dropped the stolen phone and scanned the area finding blood on the ground. Sometimes the oldest hunting methods were the most effective. It wasn't much but it was better for nothing. Clicking back the hammer he moved out. He was a hunter and his prey had left him a trail of blood. It was all he needed.

* * *

Sanctuary.

It was kind of an ironic word considering the circumstances. The old ruins of Aerith's churched loomed on the horizon offering some form of illogical hope he couldn't explain. It was truly amazing that after all the destruction wrought by Meteor that the rustic little church would still be standing. He wasn't sure if it was some form of holy miracle or luck. Rufus was going to put his money on a miracle. No amount of luck could have saved that broken building from the most destructive force the world have ever seen. Even after Deepground had come to the surface and claimed the city as their own the ageing church stood strong and managed to stand past the WRO's assault on the city. The tiny broken down church, the old broken down building hidden away in the slums, the little speck of holy ground in the unholy city of Midgar. With luck… no… with a little divine help it just might protect him as it once did Aerith.

He crouched moving low through the ruins. He knew he had a head start on his assailant but he didn't want to take chances. The entire city was as quiet as the grave. Rufus would have thought more wildlife would've began moving into the abandoned city. They say animals have a sixth sense when it came to danger. Maybe they'd cleared away sensing the impending danger that would inevitably arrive.

A gunshot cracked and echoed through the runs and Rufus ducked into cover as dust kicked up from the bullet's impact. He huddled in an abandoned building as more gunfire whizzed over his head shattering the windows with automatic fire showering him with glass. Rufus tried to stick the gun out the window and fire blindly but the hail of bullets wouldn't allow for any of it. The gunfire stopped and Rufus rose from his cover to fire only to find the assassin aiming a crossbow directly at him. He ducked down again hearing the weapon click as the bolt flew over his head and imbedded itself in the wall behind him. The rapid beeping sound and flashing red light alerted him. Rufus moved ducking around a corner as the wall exploded filling the building with dust and making his ears ring. Rufus ignored the annoying high pitched ringing as he moved out the back of the building knowing Kayaku was hot on his heels with an entire armory at his disposal. He hurried for the church knowing it would do him little good in protecting him from the former Turk.

His muscles burned and he could hear his heart thundering in his ears. Occasionally a burst of gunfire would strike at him missing and forcing him to chance route. It was clear Kayaku wasn't trying to shoot him as much as wear him down. The gunfire was simply a means of herding him into a corner. He wanted to make sure there would be no escape this time, no place to run as he ended him. In the end Rufus would be a cornered animal, a stupid wounded animal without much fight left in him. Of course Kayaku could always get lucky and kill him here in the ruins.

So be it.

Rufus sprinted through the church doors and turned around leveling his gun. Little had changed in the church since he'd last been here. Flowers were starting to blood around the holy spring that'd cured him and so many others of their Geostigma. He glared at the door determined to fight to the last breath.

A board creaked above his head and he looked up firing the gun in a panic. Pigeons scattered from the gunfire flying from their coops in fear. That was when Kayaku burst from the shadows. Rufus turned on him and fired one handed. Kayaku dodged the shots and lashed out with his sword with a quick graceful slash Rufus bid farewell to his hand. The gun and the hand holding it dropped into the pool trailing red as it sung to the bottom. Kayaku spun on his toe and kicked Rufus square in the chest sending him down into the flowers clutching his bleeding stump.

Rufus looked up at the man wielding nothing but his sword feeling helpless before him. Kayaku raised his sword.

"STOP!" a voice echoed through the church halls, it was Reeve's voice.

Kayaku halted glaring at Rufus as Reeve moved closer followed by Cloud, Vincent, Barret, Elena, Yuffie, and Cissnei all of whom with the exception of Cissnei had their weapons drawn.

"That's enough Kayaku," Reeve said moving closer to the armed assassin, "you've done quite enough, but now it's over."

"NOTHING IS OVER!" Kayaku screamed drawing his revolver with lighting fast speed and aiming it directly at Reeve, "It'll never end… not ever… not until he's dead."

"Your mission is over Kayaku… it ended long ago." Reeve explained.

"This isn't about a mission," Kayaku growled, "this is about orders or a war winning anything… this is about justice… this is about putting this monster in the dirt where he belongs." Kayaku's eyes were burning with fury. "This is about what's right."

"And what is right?" Reeve asked, "Rufus is just like you… he's a man seeking redemption… he's trying to wash the blood away."

"Blood like this don't wash away." Kayaku hissed, "This blood on our hands… it doesn't wash away… it just clogs the drain and stains the water red! There is no washing it away… no matter how much good we do to atone… no matter many lives we save or how many people we help it doesn't change a damn thing…because nothing we can do can bring the dead back to life! All there is left is what we deserve and it's what I intend to give this piece of shit!"

The sound of a dull thud caught their attention as they looked to see that Vincent Valentine had dropped his gun and stepped forward, Kayaku turned the gun towards him and fired, Yuffie screamed as the bullet kicked up a lock of hair cutting the black strands and leaving Vincent completely unharmed.

"Stay back," Kayaku commanded, "stay back or I swear to God Valentine the next one goes through your skull."

Vincent held his hands up as if he were surrendering, "Go ahead," he dared, "If you're going around punishing people for their sins you might as well kill me while you're at it."

"This is different," Kayaku protested, "People like us Valentine… we live in repentance, in punishment… we live with what we've done reminded every night with our dreams and every day with our memories, we see the faces of the dead everywhere we look! But not him… not bastards like him."

"You're wrong," Reeve said, "Rufus has been working to atone for his sin just as you… for all these years he's been the one funding the WRO spending his fortune simply to keep this world from falling back into chaos."

"You think he can buy his way into redemption?" Kayaku sneered, "you think his money can atone for the entire graveyards this man's filled?! The families he's destroyed! He and his wretched father are the reason we're standing in these fucking ruins! Why all these people died. That's why… he needs to die… on his knees like the piece of shit he is!"

"He will die," Barret said, "Everyone dies eventually Kayaku… it's the fate of all men. But on his road to Hell we'll make sure he pays with everything he has, be it his money, or his very flesh. But if you kill him now fool you'll be screwing all of us… we need Shinra to keep everything afloat or this world will fall into chaos… I know you want to fulfill yer mission and avenge everyone he's hurt… but this isn't the way to do it… let him go… let time kill him as it kills us all… slow and tormenting."

**Crack.**

A gunshot echoed through the church halls and the barrel of Kayaku's revolver smoked. He held the gun up having fired the shot into the air. "DAMNIT!" Kayaku screamed throwing the gun down and dropping his sword. "WHY AM I THE ONE YOUR AIMING AT?! I WAS JUST DOING MY JOB!" He fell to his knees trembling, "I WAS GOING TO BE A HERO! I… I WAS GOING TO SAVE MY COUNTRY… DEFEAT THE PLAUG THAT WAS SHINRA… I WAS GOING TO WIN THE WAR! BUT… BUT SOMEONE WOULDN'T LET US… SOMEONE WOULDN'T LET ME! AND INSTEAD OF A HERO MY COUNTY CAST ME ASIDE AND CALLS ME A MONSERT! IT ISN'T FAIR… WHAT DO THOUSE PEOPLE KNOW? WHERE DO THEY GET OFF JUDGING THE THINGS I'VE DONE? I DID IT ALL FOR THEM! AND THEY TREAT MY LIKE TRASH… AND NOW THIS BASTARD WALKS FREE AND IS TREATED LIKE A SAINT!"

Cissnei moved over to the crying man and wrapped her arms around him trying to calm him down as Elena moved to help a stunned and silent Rufus. Reeve watched as Cissnei comforted his agent. This was too much… he was almost tempted to let him kill Rufus and get his well-earned revenge. It wasn't fair to stack the world's problems on his shoulders and ask him to put all that water under the bridge. It wasn't right letting Rufus roam free after everything he did… but they had little choice. He couldn't put him into a prison, if the public knew he was still alive they'd murder him.

He took out his phone, "I'll call a team to retrieve us," Reeve said, "We'll talk later… this isn't over we still need to find the people who raided those labs."

Cloud looked at the sobbing man on his knees, "This is one hell of a mess," he said solemnly, "you think it can be fixed?"

"It's been broken a long time," Reeve said staring at the man as he sobbed on his knees, "but I've fixed it before and I'll fix it again."

* * *

**And thus concludes Act I. It took a while to get here and now I'm proud to say the story can truly get started. Think of what you just read as a long extended prologue and now the real story will start. Have any idea who the villains are? Because I love nothing more than listening to you people guess and guess and try to think where I'm taking this fic. I promise you the romance will begin picking up. I just needed to finally send people on the real adventure now that everyone is together and the good guys aren't trying to kill each other any more. All of Kayaku's problems how now boiled over and I'll let you all guess where it goes from here. Vincent's and Yuffie's time together will increase and we'll see how things will go with Elena as well. As you can tell the other Turks are out of commission right now after getting messed up fighting Kayaku. Stay tuned and get ready for action romance and mystery the party's just getting started. **

**If your wondering why this chapter was a little late and it's longer than most it's because I couldn't log onto for the longest time so I just kept writing until I finished the first Act. I I'm so glad I'm able to get back on again. Now that I've finished the first Act things will get more exciting (if you didn't thing this gunslinging spy story was interesting enough) be back next week with more Final Fantasy goodness.**


	28. Act II: A new Mission

**One week later**

Elena sipped her coffee and sighed contently. She definitely had to admit the WRO knew how to make a decent brew. She made a note to get the recipe from Reeve before leaving. Once upon a time she used to hate coffee. But as Reno had once told her it was an acquired taste and she learned to like it. After so many stake outs and late nights tracking targets she had no choice but to force herself to stay awake and caffeine was always available. So after forcing herself to gulp down pot after pot of black coffee loaded with sugar she learned to enjoy the bitter drink.

Rufus was nursing his missing hand at the WRO medical center along with Reno, Rude, and Tsung who was bedridden thanks to his crushed ribcage. The rest of them would need time to heal especially rude with a shot out arm and leg. Reno's broken arm had been fitted with a cast and his nose would probably remain crooked after being broken twice in the same day. Meaning she was the only able bodied Turk left and someone still needed to track down the people responsible for raiding those labs and stealing abandoned Shinra Tech and weapons.

She looked around the table sitting to the right of the former Turk Cissnei and the AVALANCH leader Barret to her right. Vincent, Cloud, Yuffie, and Reeve sat around the table waiting patiently for Reeve's to start the briefing.

"We're all here," Cloud said propping his feet up on the table, "So what are we waiting for?"

"Not everyone," Reeve said, "We're still short one person," he explained.

The door opened and Elena turned to see Kayaku walk in. He'd cleaned up since his little breakdown in the church. His copper hair was back in its long neat braid that stretched to the center of his back and dressed in his usual charcoal grey suit with red tie and fedora.

"I didn't think he'd be here," Cloud said raising an eyebrow.

"Kayaku's one of my best agents," Reeve said, "I'm hoping you'll be willing to put first impressions aside and work with him," he explained, "I know these past few days have been difficult for you all but understand that he was working under my orders, he's been doing so for a long time now preforming off the book covert missions for the WRO."

"I understand that," Cloud said as Barret pulled up a chair for the agent allowing him to sit. From what Elena could tell the AVALANCH leader seemed to be treating the ninja and former Turk more like a comrade that anyone here. It was probably because they both once belonged to cooperating anti-Shinra groups.

"But is he stable enough for us to work with?" Cloud finished as Kayaku took a seat.

"I'm not crazy," Kayaku said, "and I don't appreciate you speaking about me like I'm not here." He said folding his hands on the table.

"Well excuse me but considering recent events I'm not very considerate of your feelings." Cloud said, "And that breakdown in the church doesn't make me feel confident of your mental health."

Kayaku raised an eyebrow towards Cloud, "Considering you spent years mistaking your identity with that of SOLDIER 1st class Zack Fair I'd hardly call you an example for a healthy psyche."

"Enough!" Reeve said stopping an argument before it had a chance to begin. "Cloud Kayaku's been through his psych evaluation and deemed fit for duty and Kayaku Cloud's been analyzed and cleared with a clean bill of health he's successfully managed to sort out his memories from Zack's so no one's mental health is under question… now if that is all I'd like to begin the briefing."

No one said a word as Reeve clicked on the projector, "As you know thanks to Kayaku Mr. Williams was apprehended and is now being detained in a WRO holding facility… we've been interrogating him and have had fair amounts of success extracting information from him. It's led to some fairly revealing finds we plan to make us of."

Yuffie raised her hand, "So does he know what that little girl was all about?" she asked addressing the question that was on everyone's mind.

"No," Reeve answered her, "from what we've been able to extract even he doesn't know the purpose behind XCP001 but after a DNA test we've been able to confirm Cloud's suspicion… she is in fact a clone of Aerith created by Hojo for experimentation. What we have learned is who he was planning to sell XCP001 off to."

"Lilly," Cloud said interrupting Reeve's speech.

"Excuse me?" Reeve said turning to the spikey haired delivery boy.

"Tifa and I named her Lilly," he explained, "It didn't feel right calling her XCP001."

"Why Lilly?" Yuffie asked curiously.

"It's what Aerith used to grow in the church," Cloud explained, "we thought it sounded fitting."

"That's sweet," Yuffie said smiling.

"Getting back on track," Kayaku said, "We learned William's was hired to raid the labs and transport the stolen weapons and… Lilly… we've also managed to discover other abandoned labs his mercenaries were planning to raid."

"How do you know that?" Vincent asked Kayaku.

"I handled his interrogation," Kayaku explained simply.

Elena shivered hearing that, she remembered the sight of the decapitated head with the eye socket stuffed with burned out cigarette butts like an ashtray. Torcher despite was some movies might suggest isn't the best way to extract information. Anyone undergoing that level of pain and torment would usually say anything to get out of it even for the shortest period of time. According to Reeve however Kayaku's brutality was more focused on scaring Williams into a corner that it was getting honest answers. If what he had said was true then it certainly was effective.

"Apparently Mr. Williams was hired by the Izla Independence Army or IIA." Reeve explained, clicking the projector and showing a map with a collection of islands in the middle of the sea. "For those of you that don't know Izla is a small county in the south Wutai Sea, it's made up of a gathered mass of islands and is home to quite a few tourist resorts."

"So why does a tourist trap got a bunch of terrorists and revolutionaries gathering Shinra tech and little clone girls?" Barret asked.

"As some of you may know the WRO was having trouble organizing countries after the fall of meteor and collapse of Shinra. The World Regenesis Organization was small back then and we didn't have the necessary manpower and resources to properly govern and police these countries so we had to rely on various groups to help keep order. People like General Jin Martinez."

"A terrorist," Elena said accusingly, "You handed over the control of a nation to a terrorist."

"General Martinez was leader of an Anti-Shinra organization," Rufus said trying to correct her, "he commanded a strong militia in the county and was willing to cooperate with us until a formal government could be made."

"And he didn't take too well to the idea of surrendering that power," Cloud said guessing how the rest of the story went.

"The WRO held elections two years later and Martinez was dropped from his position as governor," Reeve explained, "however he and his men rejected the election results and attempted a coup that ultimately failed. Since then they've retreated into the islands jungles and have been attacking WRO forces since then forming his Anti-Shinra group into the IIA claiming to wish for independence from the WRO and its appointed leadership."

"So if this county's full or terrorists how does it survive as a tourist trap?" Barret asked as the projector flashed various images of flashy hotels and resorts with large swimming pools and white sandy beaches. From what the projector was showing the county didn't look exactly like a war torn nation with terrorist problems.

"For the most part the IIA have avoided any cities and tourist resorts," Reeve explained, "most of the fighting's been confined to the county side and small villages. They've mostly targeted WRO bases and have even pirated some of our cargo ships… but it looks like they might be looking to step up their game."

"So where do we come in?" Yuffie asked, "You want us to find this General what's his face and kick his butt?"

"Not exactly," Reeve said. "According to Williams he was supposed to ship XCP001 to Izla aboard a cruise liner along with some of the Shinra tech along with a couple of William's agents. We want to ship the empty XCP001 container along with some confiscated weapons and have you follow it."

"All of us?" Elena asked looking around the room at the large collection of assembled characters.

"No," Reeve said, "I want you and Kayaku to pose as William's agents I want Vincent and Yuffie to stay on that cruise with you and provide backup."

"What about me and spikey?" Barret asked, "What do you want us to do?"

"I want Cloud to watch over Lilly with Tifa," Reeve said, "If you're willing I'd like to send you all someplace safer and hidden… perhaps the Golden Saucer it'd be easy to blend into that crowd there."

"I think we can do that." Cloud said, "Tifa will be glad to take Denzel and Marline on vacation, and Lilly needs to adjust."

"Good," Reeve said, "We'll fund the whole thing so no worries about the cost. Barret I want you and Cissnei to look for the remaining Shinra labs."

"Fine," Barret said looking over towards Cissnei, "I guess I'm working with you red."

Cissnei smirked and nodded, "I guess so big guy."

"Unless there's any more questions this meeting is adjourned," Reeve said, "I'll update you all and send you mission details soon."

Elena waited until everyone shuffled out of the room leaving her alone with Reeve. "What's the problem?" Reeve asked sensing her mood.

"My boss is getting fitted with a prosthetic hand and you want me to work undercover with the man who cut it off and put my coworkers in the hospital. We're lucky none of them were killed."

"Yes we were lucky," Reeve agreed, "We were also lucky Kayaku didn't decide to put his katana through Rufus's heart and believe me I was tempted to let him."

"I'm not claiming Rufus is a saint but this world needs him… you need him," Elena said.

"Yes," Reeve agreed again, "we do need him… but it isn't right letting him roam free after what he's done… just like it isn't right for me to accept his dirty money… but right now justice needs to take a back seat to necessity and we need Rufus and we also need you and Kayaku."

"I'd feel better working with someone else," she said, "if you just wanted us to tolerate each other's presence fine but going undercover together is different."

"I'm asking you to bury the hatchet," Reeve said, "Kayaku already buried his so I suggest you do the same… besides from what Kayaku told me you gave him your number hoping for a date so it can't be that bad."

"That was before I knew he was a shell shocked killing machine," Elena protested, "And that has absolutely nothing to do with what I'm saying!"

"Will you work with him or not?" Reeve said, "I'm not going to debate this any longer… are you in or out?"

Elena sighted, she knew this was going to be rough, "In," she said determinedly, "I'm in."

"Good," Reeve said, "I'll email you the mission specifics then. Be sure to stay in contact with Kayaku as well as Vincent and Yuffie."

"So why those two?" Elena asked referring to the ex-Turk and spunky ninja.

"They work well together," Reeve said, "I'm sure you'll see what I'm talking about soon enough… though I'm honestly surprised Yuffie so readily agreed to go a ship… especially with her motion sickness."

* * *

**We'll there's the kick off for Act II and everyone's off mostly we'll focus on Elena and Kayaku and Yuffie and Vincent but we'll see a bit of everyone in this story, (even Cid I promise) now that unpleasant confusion no longer troubles our heroes they can start fighting the real bad guys. Also pairing idea what do you people think of BarretxCissnei? Please give me your opinions next chapter coming up people get ready for more spy drama.**


	29. Setting Out

Yuffie cursed her own ambition and complete lack of foresight.

She hadn't thought about how being on a cruise might affect her and how her motion sickness could act up just being on the open sea. She couldn't understand why her belly kept churning she'd already chucked out everything she'd eaten so why wouldn't it let her stop dry heaving.

A knock sounded on the bathroom door, "Are you alight?" Vincent asked through the bathroom door of their tiny little cabin.

"I'm fine," Yuffie said trying to sound as normal as possible only to find herself heaving again into the toilet. The door opened and Vincent stepped in. This was not how she wanted to spend the cruise. It was weird enough sharing a cabin with Vincent but having him see her bent over the porcelain throne with her lunch spewed out was beyond embarrassing. Wiping her lips with a piece of toilet paper and flushing her bile down the drain she stood up on wobbly legs. She really wasn't built for sea or air travel and it showed.

She grabbed the tiny bottle of mouthwash out of her toilettes bag hoping to clean the vomit taste out of her mouth. "Kayaku told me to give you these." Vincent said handing her a tiny plastic bottle, "He said it should help settle your stomach."

Yuffie took the pills and filled a cup with water, opening the bottle she popped in a few pills and washed it down. "Funny he didn't give them to me himself," Yuffie said stepping out of the bathroom with Vincent hopping to put the little gag fest behind her. "He's avoiding me," Yuffie said.

"I think it's hard for him to be around you," Vincent said, "He's not very proud of what he's become."

"It's not his fault," Yuffie said taking a seat on the bed and looking out at the tiny window at the rolling sea, she quickly looked away feeling her stomach do a summersault, "he didn't choose to become a ninja, if anyone's to blame it's my old man."

"But he did choose to perform the mission given to him," Vincent said, "orders or not he choose to do the things the Company ordered him to do."

"So what!" Yuffie said, "He was working to protect Wutai… working to protect everyone… playing dirty is what ninja's do… it's what's necessary… he shouldn't feel any guilt."

"Killing people… innocent people it hurts Yuffie… believe me I know." Vincent said turning away from her, "making excuses for your actions doesn't always numb the pain."

Yuffie looked and him and mentally cursed herself. So often she forgot about Vincent's complicated past. She didn't think of him as an ex-Turk very often and she always believed it was a part of his life he'd rather forget. But could he forget? Was it possible for him to banish the faces of the slain innocents from his mind? "I'm sorry," Yuffie said, "You of all people should understand how he feels."

"At least Kayaku has an excuse for the lives he stole," Vincent said his calm voice touched with a hint of bitterness.

"Vincent," Yuffie said reaching out to him putting a comforting hand on his shoulder, "I didn't mean to upset you," she said stepping off the bed and standing behind him.

"Its fine," Vincent said his voice a whisper.

"I don't blame you either," Yuffie said trying to assure him.

Vincent sighed, this wasn't the time to be getting worked up with his past sins. He felt Yuffie's other hand touch his shoulder and her head lean in resting again his tense back between his shoulder blades. It was comforting.

Yuffie squeezed his shoulders lightly feeling at ease leaning against him. She stayed like that comfortable and enjoying herself. She didn't know if it was the pills or just being close to him like this but all feeling of her motion sickness had left her.

Vincent took a breath and took a step away from her reaching for the door. "Let's go," he said simply, "We should get better acquainted with the ship."

Yuffie nodded and stepped outside with him. Her eyes fell to where his holster used to be. His Cerberus was stashed in the room along with her Conformer. Reeve had the decency to smuggle their weapons on the ship but recommended they keep them in their room. Guns and giant ninja stars weren't allowed on the cruise and so they went about wandering the ship unarmed. Yuffie still managed to hide her shuriken and kunai pouch beneath her pants and strapped to her calf. She hated wearing baggy pants, she preferred her khaki shorts better. There were more comfortable and offered better freedom of movement. But she hated being on a dangerous mission unarmed even more. As far as she knew Vincent was unarmed but knowing his strength and agility it hardly mattered.

She just hoped Kayaku and Elena were keeping themselves properly armed. For now they couldn't talk to each other, for now all they could do was keep a good distance and try to enjoy the cruise. At least Vince would be getting some well needed sun this trip.

…..

Kayaku strapped the scabbard to his bare torso and slid his tanto in confident it was secure across his back he grabbed the brightly colored aloha shirt. He pulled it on and made sure it concealed the blade underneath. Pulling up his pant leg he strapped a bandolier of kunai to his shoulder hiding it beneath his sleeve

"A sword and some knives aren't going to be much help if things go sour," Elena said unpacking her luggage tucking her berretta 9mm under her pillow along with a spare magazine.

"Better than nothing," he said putting on a khaki fedora, "And I have my butterfly knife in my pocket next to my cell phone.

"Just make sure no one finds you with that blade," Elena said, "You'll have some serious explaining to do to ship security."

"I know," Kayaku said, "But since we're posing as mercenaries it would be a little out of character to not me armed a little."

"True," Elena admitted, "now if you're done arming yourself to the teeth I'd like to locate our terrorist buyer."

Kayaku nodded, "let's go."

…..

Denzel and Marline pressed themselves against the cable cars glass glairing in awe at the inspiring magnificence of the Golden Saucer. Cloud smirked as they gleefully pointed out every ride and attraction that caught their fancy unable to decide what they wanted to do first. The crowed amusement park would be a good place for a couple with some kids like themselves to disappear. Even if someone found them the place was full of security and witnesses so it was a safe place to hide in plain sight.

Denzel turned around and looked at Lilly who was sticking close to Tifa. The little girl had grown very fond and close to her in the last couple weeks clinging to her like a mother. Tifa really did have a way with kids.

"What ride do you want to go on first?" he asked her enthusiastically.

The shy little girl looked away. Cloud didn't think she really understood what a ride was let alone what one she liked the most. "I… don't know," she said timidly.

Denzel flashed her a friendly smile, "That's ok," he said, "I'm sure you'll have fun."

Lilly nodded unsure of herself. Having only seen the sky for the first time a little over a week ago the little clone was having trouble adapting to being a little girl. The computer training that had been programmed in her didn't give her much aside how to speak and preform everyday tasks. The very idea of Hojo preforming his twisted experiments on this innocent girl.

Barret sat in the corner arms crossed next to Cissnei. The two of them decided to accompany them to the Golden Saucer.

"Now Marline," Barret said managing to pull the excited little girl away from gawking at the sight of the amusement park, "You be sure to be nice to Lilly ok?" he said, "and listen to Cloud and Tifa while daddy's gone."

Marline nodded, "Ok daddy," she said, "I'll be good."

"She always is," Tifa said, "And I'm sure when this is over her and Lilly will be best friends."

"Good," Barret nodded, "Now Daddy might be gone for some time," he explained, "But I'll be sure to call in and once I'm done I'll head here to join the fun."

The cable car stopped and Denzel and Marline rushed out ready to enjoy the park. Cloud turned to Barret, "Good luck searching ruins," he said shaking his hand.

"Good luck taking it easy," Barret said.

Cloud looked back at the two kids going crazy waiting in line to enter the park. "Easy… right." He said, "Just be careful I have a bad feeling about this."

Cloud stepped out and the door closed. Barret turned to Cissnei, "Alright red let's get to work."


End file.
